TONED DOWN

North Korea Replaces Missiles With Flowers in Military Parade

Trump largely took credit for the parade, which he calls a “big and very positive statement.”

North Korea celebrated the 70th anniversary of its founding Sunday with a massive military parade in Pyongyang that left out the long-range ballistic missiles that had become a trademark of the regime in recent years. Instead of the militaristic overload seen in previous parades, spectators at Sunday’s event reportedly waved flowers. The parade featured rows of goose-stepping soldiers and an array of conventional weaponry, but no mention was made of the country’s nuclear weapons capabilities. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who watched the event with a special envoy from China, described the theme of this year’s parade as economic development and unifying the Korean peninsula. President Trump took credit for the absence of intercontinental ballistic missiles in the parade, writing on Twitter that the toned-down event was a “big and very positive statement from North Korea.” He went on to quote a Fox News report saying North Korea had omitted the missiles to “show President Trump its commitment to denuclearize.”