A military parade in the North, the peace-promoting Olympics in the South / Yonhap

By Jung Min-ho, Park Si-soo

North Korea staged a military parade in Pyongyang Thursday to mark the founding day of its armed forces, a government source here said.

"It seems that North Korea staged a military parade at Kim Il-sung Square at 10:30 a.m.," the source said.

North Korea held the event a day before the opening of the PyeongChang Olympics ― but without any media coverage. It is rare for the regime to host such an event in a low-key manner.

About 50,000 officials are believed to have participated in the event, in which transporter-erector-launchers were detected among other weapons, according to the source.

North Korea has not made any announcement about the parade.

North Korea had been preparing for it to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the creation of the Korean People's Army, according to multiple reports mainly based on satellite imagery.

The South's military said earlier Thursday that the North was expected to press ahead with the parade despite the fact its athletes are attending the peace-promoting Games in PyeongChang.