360 Video: Inside North Korea's 70th anniversary Torchlight Parade

Pyongyang -- This ABC News virtual reality video shows events from right in the middle of Kim Il Sung Square at the final event of North Korea’s 70th anniversary celebrations: The Torchlight Parade.

Tens of thousands of North Korean university and high school students rallied and marched past the viewing rostrum, accompanied by giant mosaic portraits of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung and his son Kim Jong Il. The parade was filled with VIPs including senior North Korean government and military officials, as well as guests from Cuba and Syria. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was not in attendance that night.

Foreign journalists had a front-row view as the students marched past, each one carrying two paraffin wax torches with arms held at a 90-degree angles. They shouted slogans such as "Long Live Kim Jong Un" and "Long Live the Worker’s Party of Korea."

The choreography has been perfected over months of practice.

From a higher vantage point, the view shows how students are forming characters spelling out slogans, such as “Kim Jong Un’s Era,” “Heroic Korea” and “Single-minded Unity,” as they march past in formation.

This year’s parade was decidedly more positive and lighthearted than past years, as demonstrated at one point when the students donned flashing LED masks and created a wave to upbeat music.

It was all in keeping with a weekend of events surrounding the 70th anniversary celebrations in which the North pushed a message of Korean unity and economic development.

Unlike past events that showcased them, this year the country's extremely long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles were nowhere to be seen.