When it comes to grandiose, mass displays of state muscle and military grandstanding, North Korea has few equals.

This Saturday, the reclusive, and diplomatically elusive North is set to put on its biggest show to date -- a goose-stepping, tank-rumbling, missile-bristling tribute to the Workers' Party that has served at the whim of three generations of the ruling Kim family.

Speculation that the party's 70th anniversary celebrations would be topped by a long-range rocket launch has receded, but the centrepiece mass parade in Pyongyang is still expected to provide a masterclass in synchronised military swagger.

The event was announced back in February and months of intense preparations have been ramped up further in recent weeks, with the capital plastered with posters and banners extolling the party's achievements.

South Korea's defence ministry said military hardware to be used in Saturday's parade -- including armoured vehicles and mobile rocket launchers -- were being gathered at an airfield just outside Pyongyang as early as July.

According to Daily NK, a Seoul-based online news site with contacts in North Korea, prioritising the preparations above all else has led to shortages in Pyongyang and a surge in prices of everything from electronic goods to food and home fuel.

Large-scale parades -- one of the rare occasions when North Korea opens its doors to the foreign press -- serve multiple purposes.

For the domestic audience, they are a display of national pride and patriotic fervour that emphasises, above all else, support for and loyalty to the supreme leader, Kim Jong-Un.

To the outside world, they are a show of strength and defiance, closely linked to the country's missile and nuclear weapons programmes.

Held in Kim Il-Sung square in Pyongyang, the events are closely watched for glimpses of any new hardware that might signal a new step in the North's military development.

Kim Jong-Un is almost certain to preside over Saturday's celebrations as he did two years ago, but there will be little foreign representation.

In 2013, traditional ally China sent its vice president and this time will dispatch another top-ranking official, Liu Yunshan, a member of the Communist Party's politburo standing committee

(AFP)