North Korea celebrated the 73rd anniversary of its foundation with a night-time military parade in the capital, state media reported on Thursday, publishing photographs of marching rows of personnel in orange hazmat suits but no ballistic missiles.

Kim Jong Un, the leader of the reclusive state, attended the event as paramilitary and public security forces of the Worker-Peasant Red Guards, the country's largest civilian defence force, began marching in Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung square at midnight on Wednesday, state media showed.

Rodong Sinmun, the ruling Worker's Party's newspaper, published photographs of people in orange hazmat suits with medical-grade masks in an apparent symbol of anti-coronavirus efforts, and troops holding rifles marching together.