Just a day before the iconic sporting event was due to begin in neighbouring South Korea, thousands of troops, tanks and artillery pieces roared through the streets of Pyongyang.
The hermit kingdom used the parade as an opportunity to show off its latest and most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) which the regime says has the range to target anywhere on the mainland United States, as well as the UK.
Four of the menacing Hwasong-15 rockets were driven through the North Korean capital as Kim looked on from a viewing platform.
But analysts say the fact more of the ICBMs were not on display could prove the regime is struggling to produce more, as well as the massive mobile launchers needed to transport them.
David Schmerler, research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California, told CNBC: “It seems like the parade kind of showed that they haven’t quite mastered domestic production of these vehicles.
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“If they were going to try to find an opportunity to demonstrate that they could not only produce lots of ICBMs but the ability to launch them on mobile vehicles, this would have been the opportunity to have done it.”
The Hwasong-15 could be seen mounted on 18-wheeled transport erector launchers (TEL), which provide a platform for the weapon to be fired.
And because they are mobile, they are harder to find and destroy in the event of war breaking out on the Korean Peninsula.
North Korea has previously relied on converted Chinese logging trucks to transport its long-range missiles.
But the reclusive state now claims it has the capacity to build the latest TELs from scratch.
However, Eric Gomez, a policy analyst for defence and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, questioned why more of the launchers were not on parade.
Writing in a blog post, he said: “The number of TELs in [Thursday’s] parade is important because it represents a key vulnerability in North Korea’s ICBM force.”
“All of the North Korean vehicles capable of carrying ICBMs are based on Chinese-made heavy logging trucks that were modified by the North Koreans to carry missiles, but no more than six of these trucks have been seen at one time.”
Dictator Kim’s younger sister has travelled to south of the heavily armed demilitarised zone which separates the two Koreas for the winter games at PyongChang.
As her brother’s representative, Kim Yo-jong met with South Korean president Moon Jae-in today and invited him to visit Pyongyang.
If the Mr Moon accepts, it would mark the biggest diplomatic breakthrough between the two nations in more than a decade.