A parade of military hardware was conspicuously absent from North Korea's 55th anniversary celebrations on Tuesday. That seemed to reflect its present external position. Perhaps the country was trying to send a dual message to the world: It wants to reconcile the political imperative of maintaining a military-oriented dictatorship with the economic necessity of improving the living standard of its impoverished people.

In a speech at the start of a massive parade, Kim Yong Chun, chief of the general staff of the Korean People's Army, said the North Koreans must maintain a nuclear deterrent force as long as the United States continued its hostile policy toward them. But the parade itself was hardly provocative; instead of displaying missiles and other weapons that threatened international security, it focused on people -- column after column of civilians and soldiers marching in front of the top leader, Mr. Kim Jong Il.

The nonmilitary parade has lifted, if anything, some of the ambiguity that surrounded North Korea's diplomatic stance at the recent six-nation talks on its nuclear ambitions. Pyongyang has observed a tacit agreement the nations reportedly reached in Beijing: not to take any actions that would escalate tensions. Pyongyang now appears to be willing to pursue a "give and take" policy -- something it wants Washington to reciprocate.