North Korea held large rallies in Pyongyang where people shouted slogans against the United States and issued warnings about the regime’s alleged nuclear weapons stockpile, according to state-run media outlets.

Some 120,000 people and students allegedly turned out at rallies in the capital city on Saturday and Sunday, KCNA reported. Photos, some of which may have been doctored that were released by state media, showed a stadium crowded with masked people holding placards reading, “The whole U.S. mainland is within our shooting range” and “the imperialist U.S. is the destroyer of peace.”

Those rallies were held to commemorate the anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War, coming amid concerns Pyongyang could soon conduct another launch of its first military spy satellite to boost monitoring of U.S. military activities after its first attempt failed on May 31.

Nuclear-armed North Korea has been testing various weapons, including its biggest intercontinental ballistic missile, ramping up tension with South Korea and the South’s main ally, the United States.

After the Korean War, the United States and North Korea’s communist regime never signed a peace treaty. North Korea and South Korea remain technically at war because their 1950 to 1953 conflict ended in an armistice only.

The conflict was triggered by North Korea when its forces launched a surprise attack on South Korea after famously crossing the 38th parallel, unlike what Pyongyang has long claimed, according to historians.

Rally-goers also proclaimed that North Korea has an expanding nuclear weapons and missile programs and insisted their country has the “strongest absolute weapon to punish the U.S. imperialists and the war deterrence for self-defense which no enemy dare provoke,” reported The Associated Press. Some also said they want to initiate a “war of revenge” against Washington.

There are signs that North Korea is planning a huge military parade in Pyongyang, where it would likely showcase its new military hardware.

Lee Sung Joon, a spokesperson for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, told AP during a recent briefing that the South’s military was closely analyzing the North’s presumed parade preparations but did not provide specific details. Recent commercial satellite images have shown troop and vehicle movements and the building of structures suggestive of preparations for a parade, likely for the July 27 anniversary of the Korean War armistice agreement.

Former President Donald Trump engaged in disarmament talks in 2019 with Kim Jong Un, the dictator of North Korea, but a deal was not reached. Kim has since launched tests of new nuclear missiles under the Biden administration with the goal they can reach the United States.

During the 2024 campaigning, Trump said that he had a good relationship with Kim and would again attempt to reach out to the isolated regime in a bid to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula. In 2019, he became the first president to ever step foot on North Korean soil since the 1953 armistice was signed.

“We’ll see what that means,” Trump told governors in February 2019 about working with Kim, who also praised Trump in a letter several years ago. “But he’s never had a relationship with anybody from this country and hasn’t had lots of relationships anywhere.”

Before he met with Kim, however, Trump repeatedly criticized the communist leader by calling him “little rocket man” in 2018 and said that if North Korea continues to threaten the United States, it will be “met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

Earlier this month, Trump drew criticism from GOP candidates after he praised Kim for controversially being named to the executive board of the United Nations’ World Health Organization. “Congratulations to Kim Jung [sic] Un!” Trump wrote via social media platform Truth Social.

In response, candidates like former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and former Vice President Mike Pence criticized his post.

“Whether it’s my former running mate or anyone else, nobody should be praising the dictator in North Korea or praising the leader in Russia, who has launched an unprovoked war of aggression in Ukraine,” Pence told Fox News earlier in June. “This is a time when we ought to make it clear to the world that we stand for freedom and we stand with those who stand for freedom.”

However, the Republican hopefuls’ criticisms of Trump appeared to have made little impact on his popularity. Recent polls show that Trump enjoys broad support among GOP voters, besting DeSantis—the No. 2 candidate—by an average of about 30 percentage points.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.