professor of international studies at ewha womans university in seoulthe message pyongyang wants to send internationally demonstrating its capabilities to deter and coerce will likely come in the form of solidfuel missile tests and detonation of a miniaturized nuclear device he said he was referring to us and south korean assessments that the north could be preparing to conduct its first nuclear test since september 2017north koreas official korean central news agency confirmed that the parade featured a variety of nuclearcapable weapons including tactical nuclear weapons targeting south korea the agency described the icbms as crucial weapons supporting the norths ongoing powertopower allout confrontation against its enemieslee sungjun spokesperson of south koreas joint chiefs of staff said during a briefing that the south korean and us militaries were closely analyzing the north korean photos and reports to evaluate the weaponrynorth korea is coming off a recordbreaking year in weapons testing and the dozens of missiles it fired in 2022 included potentially nuclearcapable systems designed to strike targets in south korea and the us mainlandthe intensified testing activity was punctuated by fiery statements and a new law threatening preemptive nuclear attacks against its neighbors and the united states in a broad range of scenarioskim doubled down on his nuclear push entering 2023during a major political conference in december kim called for an exponential increase of the countrys nuclear warheads mass production of battlefield tactical nukes targeting enemy south korea and the development of more powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles that could reach the continental united statesnorth korean state tv may broadcast the parade on tape delay later thursday analysts will then pour over the footage for clues about the countrys progress in nuclear weapons and missile technologiessome experts anticipated that north korea would use the parade to showcase a new solidfuel intercontinental ballistic missile which would potentially be a crucial addition to the countrys longrange arsenal targeting the us mainlandin december kim supervised a test of a highthrust solidfuel motor for a new strategic weapon he said would be developed in the shortest span of time which experts said likely referred to a solidfuel icbmthe use of solid fuel could reduce the amount of launch preparation time and allow missiles to be more mobile on the ground all of the icbms the north has flighttested since 2017 used liquid propellantssolidfuel icbms highlighted an extensive wish list kim announced under a fiveyear arms development plan in 2021 which also included tactical nuclear weapons hypersonic missiles nuclearpowered submarines and spy satellitesanalysts say kims decision to bring his daughter to public events tied to his military is to send a statement to the world he has no intention to voluntarily surrender his nuclear weapons which he apparently sees as the strongest guarantee of his survival and the extension of his familys dynastic rulean official from south koreas unification ministry who spoke on condition of anonymity during a background briefing said its too early to determine whether kim ju ae is being groomed as the fourth