|
 Thousands of troops stood at attention under a blue autumn sky in
Pyongyang's main Kim Il Sung Square, named after Kim Jong Un's
grandfather and the founder of the nation, as Kim, appearing relaxed
and confident, made his speech, leaning heavily on the lectern.
The young leader was accompanied by senior Chinese Communist Party
official Liu Yunshan, with whom he was seen speaking throughout the
event and occasionally shared laughs, and flanked by senior North
Korean party and military officials.
"The party's revolutionary armament means we are ready to fight any
kind of war waged by the U.S. imperialists," Kim said in a speech
strikingly more forceful than previous public comments, praising the
feats of past leaders and the ruling party.
He made no direct mention of the country's nuclear program, likely a
conciliatory diplomatic gesture towards China, which hosted the
now-defunct "six-party talks", also involving the United States, on
giving economic incentives to Pyongyang in return for scrapping its
atomic ambitions.
 On Wednesday, a high-level U.S. military official said Washington
believed North Korea had the capability to launch a nuclear weapon
against the U.S. mainland and stood ready to defend against any such
attacks.
Kim's speech was followed by troops marching in formation, first by
a corps of soldiers dressed in the style of the revolutionary force
that fought Japan during World War Two, and then a procession of
military might rolling past the square.
A battery of the North's intercontinental ballistic missiles was the
highlight of the weapons display, although they are not known to
have been successfully tested.
Impoverished North Korea and rich, democratic South Korea remain
technically at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce,
not a treaty. The North, slapped with U.N. and U.S. sanctions for
its nuclear weapons and rocket programs, often threatens to destroy
the South, and its major ally the United States, in a sea of flames.
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In a letter delivered by Liu, the most senior Chinese official to
visit Pyongyang since leader Kim came to power following his
father's death in 2011, Xi said China attached vital importance to
its relationship with North Korea, China's official Xinhua news
agency said.
China is North Korea's chief ally and its main trading partner,
although ties have been strained over the North's nuclear program.
Xi said in the letter that China had "been striving to treat the
bilateral relations from a strategic and long-term perspective". Liu
reiterated China's position that it wanted an early resumption of
the six-party talks.
"The Chinese side is willing to seek closer communication and deepen
cooperation, pushing for a long-term, healthy and stable development
of the Sino-DPRK ties," Xi said in the letter cited by Xinhua,
referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea.
Kim, who is in his early thirties, told the visiting Chinese
delegation on Friday that North Korea was also keen to bolster ties,
the North's official KCNA news agency said on Saturday.
Liu is the fifth-ranked member on China's ruling Communist Party's
elite Politburo Standing Committee.
(Additional reporting by Jack Kim and Hooyeon Kim in Seoul, Kazunori
Takada in Shanghai and Megha Rajagopalan in Beijing; Editing by Tony
Munroe and Nick Macfie)
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