North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, attends a military parade in Pyongyang in the early hours of Sept. 9, 2021, as reported in North Korea's Rodong Sinmun. (Photo courtesy of Korea Media/Kyodo)

       BEIJING (Kyodo) -- North Korea staged a military parade early Thursday to celebrate the 73rd anniversary of the country's founding, state-run media reported, with leader Kim Jong Un struggling to cope with the nation's worst food crisis in more than a decade.

       The military parade, believed to be aimed at generating national unity, was North Korea's first since January this year, when the country held the first congress of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea in nearly five years.

       The holding of the latest parade, in which paramilitary and public security forces participated, may also be related to last month's South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises that prompted the North to warn of a "serious security crisis."

       Pyongyang has long lambasted military drills between Seoul and Washington as rehearsals for war and invasion.

       Kim, clad in a grey suit and tie, watched the parade, which started at midnight at Kim Il Sung Square, the capital's central area named after his grandfather and North Korea's founder, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

       The Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the ruling party, also reported on the parade in Thursday's edition but did not feature any photos of ballistic missiles, indicating no strategic weapons were on display.

       At a military parade in October 2020, North Korea showed off its cutting-edge intercontinental ballistic missile on the 75th anniversary of the founding of the ruling party, while unveiling a submarine-launched ballistic missile in January 2021.

       Kim seems not to have made a speech at Thursday's parade, which was held at a time when North Korea's economy has languished further.

       North Korea said earlier this year in a report to the United Nations that it has suffered from its worst food crisis in over 10 years, with fears mounting that the country's citizens have encountered difficulties in obtaining daily essentials.

       Kim also said in June that the food situation in North Korea was "getting tense" as its agricultural sector was devastated by powerful typhoons and flooding in 2020.

       The nuclear-armed nation appears not to have imported food products recently from China, which is known as its closest and most influential ally in economic terms, as it has blocked the border with its neighbor amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

       Pyongyang claims no infection cases have been found in the country, but it has cut off land traffic to and from China and Russia since early last year to prevent the intrusion of the virus, first detected in China's central city of Wuhan in late 2019.

       North Korea was established on Sept. 9, 1948, backed by the Soviet Union, Russia's predecessor state.

       On the occasion of the 73rd anniversary of the nation's founding, Kim received messages of greeting from several political leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, KCNA reported.

       "I highly value the development of the China-DPRK relations and have intent to develop these ties of friendship and cooperation on a long-term basis and in a stable way," Xi was quoted by the news agency as saying in his message.

       DPRK is the acronym of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.

       Putin told Kim in his message that relations between Russia and North Korea are "based on the good traditions of friendship and mutual respect," according to KCNA.

       In the 1950-1953 Korean War, the North supported by China and the Soviet Union fought against the South backed by U.S.-led U.N. forces. Pyongyang has no diplomatic ties with Washington as the war ended in a cease-fire rather than a peace treaty.

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