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President Yoon Suk-yeol shakes hands with National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo at an event marking Armed Forces Day at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam on Sept. 26. (Yonhap)

At an event marking South Korea’s 75th Armed Forces Day, President Yoon Suk-yeol warned that if North Korea were to use a nuclear weapon the US and South Korea alliance would “end” the regime in Pyongyang.

The remarks came on Tuesday, when Yoon took part in the first mass military parade Korea has held in 10 years.

“The North Korean regime must get one thing clear: nuclear weapons won’t protect it,” Yoon said in prepared remarks at an event held at Seoul Air Base that morning.

His remarks struck a much more ruthless tone than the rhetoric used in his speech for last year’s Armed Forces Day, in which he said, “If North Korea attempts to use its nuclear weapons, it will face a resolute and overwhelming response of the ROK-US alliance and the Korean military.”

In an interview with the Associated Press published on Sept. 17, Yoon also said that South Korea had “reaffirmed that any nuclear attack by North Korea will be met with a swift, overwhelming and decisive response that will bring about the end of the regime.”

Yoon also used Tuesday’s speech to take aim at those critical of his government, saying that the Korean people “will not be blinded by North Korean communist forces, nor adherents of them.”

Around 6,700 soldiers and 200 or so tanks and other military vehicles and equipment were on display at the Armed Forces Day event at Seoul Airfield.

The event was the first time Seoul revealed some of its “high-power” surface-to-surface missiles and long-range surface-to-air missiles, the firepower behind Korea’s “three-axis” defense system, consisting of the “kill chain,” air and missile defense, and massive punishment and retaliation.

One such missile, the Hyunmoo-5, has earned a reputation as a “monster missile” for its ability to carry warheads of around 8 or 9 metric tons, for a total weight of 36 metric tons.

In the event of a contingency on the peninsula, it would be the Hyunmoo-5 that carries out massive punishment and retaliation — that is, destroying underground bunkers for North Korean leadership and military command facilities.

A parade made up of over 4,000 troops and the key components of Korea’s three-axis defense system marched through central Seoul’s Gwanghwamun on Tuesday afternoon. This marks the first such massive military parade for Armed Forces Day since one held in October 2013.

Yoon walked for part of the parade with military commanders.

By Bae Ji-hyun, staff reporter; Kwon Hyuk-chul, staff reporter

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