By Jonathan Kaiman

Los Angeles Times

PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korea displayed its long-range missiles in a military parade Saturday as a show of force against the United States and a display of devotion to the country’s supreme leader, Kim Jong Un, demonstrating the depth of the isolated nation’s nuclear ambitions and further raising the specter of a military conflict in northeast Asia.

North Korea did not test a missile or nuclear weapon to mark the anniversary, as many had expected. But in a speech, Choe Ryong Hae, the vice chairman of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea — widely believed to be the country’s second-most powerful man — warned that Pyongyang would not hesitate to deploy nuclear weapons against the U.S.

“Now the U.S. imperialists have struck a sovereign country,” he said in reference to the recent American airstrike on a Syrian airbase in retaliation for a chemical-weapons attack. “Now, they are dispatching nuclear forces in the territory of the Korean peninsula. If the U.S. government preemptively strikes our country, we are ready to counter strongly.”

President Donald Trump diverted a naval strike group toward the peninsula last week, led by the USS Carl Vinson, an aircraft supercarrier accompanied by destroyers and a guided-missile cruiser. The Vinson is not known to carry nuclear weapons.

The North Korea-U.S. showdown has put northeast Asia in a state of heightened anxiety. Vice President Mike Pence arrives in Seoul this weekend to discuss North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and affirm support for U.S. allies. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Friday that North Korea may be able to arm its missiles with the deadly nerve agent sarin, and Japan’s national security council reportedly has discussed how to evacuate its nearly 60,000 citizens from South Korea should North Korea attack.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said a military conflict between North Korea and the U.S. could break out “at any moment” and urged the two nations to avoid the “irreversible route” of war.

Saturday’s parade ——— a celebration of the 105th birthday of Kim’s grandfather, the country’s founder-president, Kim Il Sung —— included a long procession of tanks, missile-bearing trucks and soldiers.

North Korea showed several new pieces of military hardware at the parade, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported, including a type of intercontinental ballistic missile. Analysts believe that the country could within a decade have the capability of launching a nuclear-weapon-tipped ICBM that could reach the continental U.S., and could perform its sixth nuclear test at a moments’ notice.

Other new weapons on display included Pukkuksong submarine-launched ballistic missiles, which North Korea tested last year and are harder to detect than land-launched ICBMs.

Yet the show of force left unanswered questions about the equipment’s reliability. The parade didn’t go off seamlessly; a North Korean live broadcast of the event showed one tank billow smoke, then turn away before the column continued through Kim Il Sung Square.

Trump has pressured China to rein in North Korea’s nuclear program, threatening that if it doesn’t, the U.S. could act on its own. On Friday, Wang, the foreign minister, in a phone call with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, pledged to try to renew talks with North Korea, according to China’s foreign ministry.

China also has temporarily stopped its coal imports from North Korea — a measure that Trump praised this week in a news conference. But it’s unclear how much farther China — the North Korea’s biggest benefactor — is willing to go. Beijing fears that a regime collapse in Pyongyang would send refugees across the two countries’ shared border and destroy the buffer between itself and South Korea, a staunch U.S. ally.

Saturday’s parade lasted for about two hours. Jets soared overhead, flying in formation to form the number “105,” the number of years since Kim Il Sung’s birth. The military band repeatedly played an anthem called “Defend Our Respected Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un at the Cost of our Lives.”

Tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of citizens — the men dressed in suits, the women in traditional Korean dresses — marched by, clutching pink artificial flowers and national flags. They clustered around floats adorned with political slogans, perhaps one-story high. “Long live the socialist medical system,” said one, surrounded by doctors. Another, surrounded by athletes, implored them to defend Korea’s “dignity” by winning gold medals.

A third float, depicting a new residential development in Pyongyang, read: “We are the happiest in the world.” The marchers turned their heads to Kim, tears streaming down their faces.