PYONGYANG, North Korea — Workers with brushes and brooms put the final touches on Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square on Saturday as North Korea prepared for what promises to be its biggest celebration in years – the 70th anniversary of the country’s official birth as a nation.

The spectacle, months in the making, will center on a military parade and mass games that will likely put both advanced missiles and leader Kim Jong Un’s hopes for a stronger economy front and center.

Although North Korea stages military parades almost every year, and held one just before the Olympics began in South Korea in February this year, Sunday’s parade comes at a particularly sensitive time.

Kim’s effort to ease tensions with President Trump have stalled since their June summit in Singapore. Washington wants Kim to commit to denuclearization first, but Pyongyang wants its security guaranteed and a peace pact formally ending the Korean War.

With tensions once again on the rise, a parade featuring the very missiles that so unnerved Trump last year could be seen as a deliberate provocation.

The North displayed its latest missilery in the February parade, however, and Washington hardly batted an eye. So it’s possible Kim might choose to display them but give the missiles a lower profile.

Either way, soon after the Sunday celebrations end, Kim will once again meet in Pyongyang with South Korean President Moon Jae-in to discuss ways to break the impasse over his nuclear weapons.

While it remains to be seen what kind of weaponry will be rolled out Sunday, North Korea is clearly trying to switch its emphasis away from just military power to its efforts to improve the country’s domestic economy.

The “new line” of putting economic development first has been Kim’s top priority this year. He claims to have perfected his nuclear arsenal enough to deter U.S. aggression and devote his resources to raising the nation’s standard of living.

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