Top leader Kim Jong Il, General Secretary of the WPK and Chairman of the National Defense Commission of the DPRK, appeared in front of cheering crowds at the massive ceremony in central Pyongyang, which featured phalanxes of cadets, soldiers and tanks, missiles and other military hardware.

Beside Kim Jong Il on the rostrum was Zhou Yongkang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, who arrived here in the morning for a three-day official visit.

Ri Yong Ho, Chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army (KPA) and the other vice chairman of the WPK's Central Military Commission, reviewed the troops by car before the parade started.

Should the DPRK come under attack, the KPA will smash the enemies with merciless and just retaliatory strikes, the vice marshal said, adding that the country faces a splendid future under the leadership of the WPK.