THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

This week we marked the anniversary of the truce signed at Panmunjom that ended the fighting in Korea, but not the war. In North Korea, Kim Jong Pudge had a mighty parade staged to show off his mighty army.

The North Korean military has traditionally used large parades to swear its loyalty to the Kim family. But the spectacles have also been closely monitored by regional analysts and policy makers for clues about the state of the Kim dynasty’s arsenal.

Mr. Kim appeared to be eager to feed that hunger and display his country’s latest military hardware just months after a serious flare in tensions on the divided peninsula that included threats to stage nuclear attacks. As with other celebrations in the police state, this one was highly choreographed, and North Korea invited some international journalists to cover the events.

Mobile launchers rumbled before Mr. Kim and a crowd of journalists and other foreign visitors carrying the KN-08, widely believed to have been designed as the North’s first intercontinental ballistic missile. Some analysts suspect that the KN-08, first unveiled during a military parade in Pyongyang in April of last year, is still in a developmental stage and the missiles displayed might be mock-ups.

The North would need such missiles to be able to deliver nuclear weapons to the United States, but it also remains unclear if the country has been able to miniaturize bombs so they could fit on a long-range missile. The North says its missiles are a deterrent against American hostilities.

The Saturday parade also featured truckloads of baleful-looking soldiers hugging packs with radioactive warning symbols. With such a display, North Korea appeared to suggest that it may have created radioactive “dirty bombs,” said Shin In-kyun, a military expert who runs Korea Defense Network, a civic group specializing in military affairs.

“North Korea is exaggerating and showing off its nuclear and missile threats,” Mr. Shin said.

Is it all real or not? We don't know and really, why should we care. We should bring home all our military from Korea and leave a phone number where Pudge can reach us if he wants to sign a peace treaty. The South Koreans can handle his army and the Chinese can deal with their favorite bad boy.