Led by rows of military bands, columns of troops toting rifles and a troupe of sword-wielding female soldiers marched into the vast square in the heart of the city which was festooned in the national colours of blue, white and red.
Kim Jong Un, looking relaxed in a dark suit and laughing with aides, oversaw the festivities on the "Day of the Sun" at Pyongyang's main Kim Il Sung Square.
The parade, the annual highlight of North Korea's most important holiday, came amid growing worldwide worries that North Korea may be preparing for its sixth nuclear test or a major missile launch, such as its first flight test of an ICBM capable of reaching USA shores.
North Korea celebrated the 105th anniversary of Kim Il Sung's birth, North Korea's founder, in a customary grandiose display on Saturday afternoon.
North Korea, still technically at war with the South after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce but not a treaty, has on occasion conducted missile or nuclear tests to coincide with big political events and often threatens the United States, South Korea and Japan.
Pyongyang has also expressed anger over the ongoing annual spring military exercises the USA holds with South Korea, which it considers a rehearsal for invasion.
Speculation that it could conduct a sixth blast in the coming days to coincide with the anniversary has reached fever pitch, with specialist U.S. website 38North describing its Punggye-ri test site as "primed and ready" and White House officials saying military options were "already being assessed".
Trump has dispatched the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and an accompanying battle group to the Korean peninsula.
"We are sending an armada, very powerful". "He is doing the wrong thing", he added of Kim.
North Korea has carried out a total of five nuclear tests so far, and according to an expert satellite imagery analysis Pyongyang may be preparing for a sixth test soon.
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Trying to reason with the Valley's "stone-pelters", he said stones can be used for better purposes - to build infrastructure. The message was clearly for the youth who indulged in stone-pelting in the Kashmir valley, a trend that is growing.
North Korea showed two new kinds of ICBM enclosed in canister launchers mounted on the back of trucks, suggesting Pyongyang was working towards a "new concept" of ICBM, said Melissa Hanham, a senior research associate at the US -based Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California.
Weapons analysts said they believed some of the missiles on display were new types of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM).
Military specialists keep a close eye on Pyongyang's military parades for clues about developments in the North's capabilities.
"We have the potential for a nuclear war that would take millions of lives".
The US cruise missile strike on Syria vindicated its stance, it said last weekend. Kim has warned the United States of launching a pre-emptive nuclear strike, if the USA nuclear forces mobilise against it.
"However, North Korea has a habit of showing off new concepts in parades before they ever test or launch them", she said.
A USA military official, who requested anonymity to discuss planning, said the United States doesn't intend to use military force against North Korea in response to either a nuclear test or a missile launch.
In Dandong, China's main border post with North Korea, hundreds of North Koreans gathered at a cultural centre carrying floral displays.
Beijing has made clear its frustration with Pyongyang's stubbornness but its priority remains preventing any instability on its doorstep, and it has been unnerved by the sabre-rattling.
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