North Korea claims new military milestone ahead of anniversary

Oct. 8 (UPI) -- North Korea is promoting its military ahead of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Korean Workers' Party on Saturday, when the regime is expected to showcase new weapons during a military parade.

The international department of the Workers' Party said Thursday the "great undertaking" of the party is "victory and invincibility" as national defense enters a new "high level of development."

"The nation's armed forces were strengthened by the invincible battlefield, and the nation's armed forces, the nation's defense, and the development of the Juche-oriented defense industry entered a higher level," Pyongyang said, according to KCNA. Juche is the official ideology of self-reliance in North Korea.

The North Korean statement also claimed national defense capability can "reliably guarantee the stability of the Korean Peninsula and the region," a reference to its nuclear missiles and other forms of deterrence.

The party added the "material and technological foundations of a self-reliant economy has been supplemented" and that "economic construction and the improvement of people's lives" have been feasible through the "relentless struggle" of the North Korean population.

"Indeed, in the past nine years, our nation has created unprecedented historical miracles in succession despite the worst challenges in which survival itself is impossible," the party statement read. Kim Jong Un fully assumed power in 2012.

"Even amid the terrible challenge of imperialism, the global spread of a malicious virus, and the madness of the natural world, progressive humanity the world over has been unsparing in their admiration of the indomitable spirit and heroic struggles of the [North Korean] people," the party claimed.

South Korea is monitoring the North ahead of the anniversary.

South Korean news service Tongil News reported Thursday the presidential national security council met to "check on the situation" in the North ahead of Saturday.

South Korean Unification Minister Lee In-young said during a parliamentary audit there is a possibility Pyongyang will engage in a "low-intensity" demonstration of military power, according to the report.