North Korea held a military parade earlier today, debuting what appeared to be the country's new submarine-based and long-range missiles. The parade also celebrated the 105th birth anniversary of Kim Il-sung, North Korea's founding president.
Why it matters: The military parade, particularly the presentation of the nation's new ballistic missiles, is the latest display of military force as tensions continue to grow between North Korea and the US.
Citing "multiple senior U.S. intelligence officials," NBC News reports that the U.S. "is prepared to launch a preemptive strike with conventional weapons against North Korea should officials become convinced that North Korea is about to follow through with a nuclear weapons test."
Here's the problem — neatly summarized by the New York Times' national security correspondent David Sanger, who's covered North Korea and nuclear proliferation for three decades: North Korea has had — and still has — a non-nuclear way of destroying Seoul, one of the biggest and most prosperous capitals in Asia," Sanger told NPR's "Fresh Air."
