Thomas Maresca

Special to USA TODAY

SEOUL – North Korea held a military parade to celebrate the 70th anniversary of its founding on Sunday but refrained from displaying its long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles or mentioning its nuclear program amidst a period of diplomatic negotiations with the United States and South Korea.

In previous years, the parade has been a showcase for Pyongyang’s latest weapons technology, but this year the event had a less bellicose tone, according to reports from foreign journalists invited to cover it.

Thousands of goose-stepping troops marched through Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square before crowds waving brightly colored plastic bouquets of flowers, according to The Associated Press. Tanks and shorter-range weapons were on display, but none of the long-range missiles with the capacity to strike targets in the continental U.S. were seen.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was on hand but did not address the crowd. He reviewed the procession from a balcony over Kim Il Sung Square alongside senior officials and foreign envoys including Li Zhanshu, a member of China’s Politburo Standing Committee who is number three in Beijing’s power hierarchy.

Kim Yong Nam, head of North Korea’s parliament, delivered a speech that focused mainly on economic development, according to CNN.

Kim Jong Un has accelerated economic reforms since coming to power in 2011, and this year, in particular, he has emphasized developing North Korea’s economy. In April, he announced that North Korea would be ending its policy of dual-track development of both nuclear weapons and economic growth and instead would “focus all of its energy on building a socialist economy.”

Other foreign dignitaries on hand included Valentina Matvienko, the speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, who told the Russian news agency RIA that Kim Jong Un confirmed his intention to visit Russia. The North Korean leader “wants peace,” she was quoted as saying.

Also viewing the parade was French actor Gerard Depardieu, who was spotted by journalists from the Agence France-Presse news agency.

The parade comes as North Korea and the United States appear to be at an impasse over negotiations concerning North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. A June summit in Singapore between Kim Jong Un and President Trump produced an agreement pledging "to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," but did not provide a road map for how that might work.

North Korea wants a peace declaration officially ending the Korean War and relief from punishing international sanctions but the United States has held firm on its demands for complete denuclearization first. Hostilities in the Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice after three years of brutal conflict that claimed the lives of nearly 3 million soldiers and civilians, including more than 36,000 Americans, but no peace treaty has been signed.

“We believe that denuclearization has to take place before we get to other parts,” State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters Wednesday.

Nevertheless, Kim Jong Un expressed "unwavering trust for President Trump" and said that he wants to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula before the end of Trump’s first term, according to South Korean special envoy Chung Eun-yong after a meeting with Kim in Pyongyang.

Trump thanked Kim for his sentiment on Twitter, adding, “We will get it done together!”

On Saturday, the State Department confirmed that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo received a personal letter from Kim for Trump, which the president had said he believes will be "positive" in tone.

Seoul has also been strongly pushing for closer diplomatic and economic ties with Pyongyang, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in will be meeting Kim Jong Un for a third time later this month. Moon said Friday that he will be seeking “irrevocable progress” in efforts to rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons by the end of this year at the summit, which will be held in Pyongyang.

North Korea was also scheduled to hold its first Mass Games spectacle in five years on Sunday. The event in the past has a with enormous choreographed propaganda displays and large-scale performances of up to 100,000 synchronized gymnasts and dancers.