SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea invited visiting Chinese delegates and Russian artists to a paramilitary parade featuring rocket launchers pulled by trucks and tractors, state media said Saturday, in leader Kim Jong Un’s latest effort to display his ties with Moscow and Beijing in the face of deepening confrontations with Washington.

The event in the capital, Pyongyang, which began Friday night to celebrate North Korea’s 75th founding anniversary that fell Saturday, came amid expectations that Kim will travel to Russia soon for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin that could focus on North Korean arms sales to refill reserves drained by the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine.

While China sent a delegation led by Vice Premier Liu Guozhong to North Korea’s anniversary celebrations, Russia sent a military song-and-dance group.

South Korean media speculated that the lack of Russian government officials at the festivities in Pyongyang could be related to preparations for a summit between Kim and Putin, which Washington expects within the month.

Putin is expected to attend an international forum that runs from Sunday to Wednesday in the eastern city of Vladivostok, which was also the site of his first summit with Kim in 2019 and is now seen as a possible venue for their next meeting.

South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing Thursday that North Korea and Russia could also be arranging an unexpected “surprise” route for Kim’s visit to avoid potential venues reported by the media.

North Korea has not confirmed any plans for Kim to visit Russia.

“Whether or not a Putin-Kim summit soon follows, the United States is attempting to deter serious violations of international law by preemptively releasing intelligence,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.

The growing cooperation between China, Russia and North Korea, and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s decision to skip the Group of 20 Summit in India, give the appearance of a widening fissure in Asia’s geopolitical landscape, he said.

Still, a major Russia-North Korea arms deal, which would breach numerous international sanctions, should worry Beijing because “association with an emerging pariah state bloc could have negative repercussions for China’s globalized but struggling economy,” Easley said.

Photos at the parade showed Kim with his young daughter, believed to be named Ju Ae, as they watched the parade from Kim’s balcony in Kim Il Sung Square, named after his state-founding grandfather.

Since November, Kim Jong Un has been bringing his daughter — believed to be around 10 years old — to major public events involving the country’s military. Analysts say Kim’s showcasing of his daughter is meant to show he has no intention of voluntarily surrendering the nuclear weapons and missiles he sees as the strongest guarantee of his survival and the extension of his family’s dynastic rule.