In Pics: North Korea holds military parade on eve of Olympics

North Korea staged a military parade in Pyongyang Thursday to mark the 70th anniversary of its armed forces, putting its intercontinental ballistic missiles on the show just a day before the Winter Olympics open in the South.

Pyongyang last month announced it was changing the date of its military commemoration from April 25 to February 8 -- the day before the Games' opening ceremony in Pyeongchang, just 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that divides the peninsula.

But regiments of soldiers goose-stepped information through Kim Il Sung Square on Thursday, followed by trucks, artillery, tanks and finally four giant Hwasong-15 ICBMs -- as well as a band forming the Korean word for "Victory".

Leader Kim Jong Un took his place on the rostrum to watch the display, along with his wife Ri Sol Ju and ceremonial head of state Kim Yong Nam -- who will head Pyongyang's delegation to the Olympics on Friday.

North Korea is under multiple sets of UN Security Council sanctions over its banned nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes, which have seen it develop rockets capable of reaching the US mainland.

North Korea normally invites hundreds of foreign journalists to show off the spectacle to the world but did not do so this time, possibly an indication that it wanted to control how the display is seen -- which would be in keeping with the absence of live coverage.

"We ... have become capable of showcasing our stature as a world-class military power to the world," said Kim.

Source: AFP/Screen grabs taken from North Korea's KCTV