Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Kim Jong-un stressed the need to "remove confrontation" between the two Koreas 
 
 The North Korean leader has delivered a new year's message on state TV, the first such broadcast for 19 years. 
 
 Kim Jong-un, in power since 2011, spoke of the need to improve the economy and also to reunify the Koreas, warning that confrontation only led to war. 
 
 The speech came less than a month after the conservative Park Geun-hye was elected president of South Korea. 
 
 In 1994, Mr Kim's grandfather, Kim Il-sung, spoke on radio and TV. His son, Kim Jong-il rarely spoke in public. 
 
 In addition to Mr Kim's televised address, new year's messages were issued in the form of a joint editorial by North Korea's three main newspapers. 
 
 Musical performance 
 
 Kim Jong-un said 2013 would be a year of creations and changes, calling for a "radical turnabout" that would transform the impoverished, isolated state into an "economic giant" and raise living standards. 
 
 Analysis After a year of rocket launches and international isolation, the new year speech seemed to refocus North Korea's sights on the economy. There were the usual tributes to military strength, but less open hostility than in some previous speeches. Instead the focus was a call by the North Korean leader for the country to become "an economic giant". It was, he said, the "most important task… in the present stage of building a thriving socialist economy". Pyongyang has become increasingly isolated internationally over the past few years, and has become heavily reliant on China for its economic survival. With a new president due to take office in South Korea next month, some analysts saw signs of conciliation. President-elect Park Geun-hye has said she wants to rebuild trust, and - eventually - economic and diplomatic contacts with the North. In the new year speech, her counterpart in Pyongyang called for an end to confrontation between the North and the South, and for both sides to "respect... and implement" previously-agreed declarations. Many in the South - and in Washington - will want to see concrete evidence of Pyongyang's willingness to do that. 
 
 But while he said confrontation between the North and the South should be removed, Mr Kim stressed that military power remained a national priority. 
 
 "The military might of a country represents its national strength. Only when it builds up its military might in every way can it develop into a thriving country," he said. 
 
 The message coincides with UN Security Council discussions on how to punish Pyongyang for a recent long-range rocket launch. 
 
 Under Mr Kim's leadership, North Korea has conducted two long-range rocket launches - actions condemned by the US and Pyongyang's neighbours as banned tests of missile technology. 
 
 The launch in April failed, but December's attempt appears to have been a success, placing a satellite into orbit. 
 
 The US, Japan and South Korea are seeking a response in the UN Security Council, which banned North Korea from missile tests after nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. 
 
 Kim Jong-un saw in the new year by watching a musical performance with his wife, North Korean state media reported. ||||| In this image made from KRT video, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gives his first public speech during a massive celebration marking the 100th birthday of national founder Kim Il Sung, Sunday, April... (Associated Press) 
 
 North Korea's new leader addressed his nation and the world for the first time Sunday, vowing before cheering troops and bouquet-waving citizens to place top priority on his impoverished nation's military, which promptly unveiled a new long-range missile. 
 
 The speech was a highlight of two weeks of celebrations marking the centenary of the birth of his grandfather, national founder Kim Il Sung _ festivities that were marred by a failed launch Friday of a rocket that generated international condemnation and cost North Korea a food aid-for-nuclear freeze deal with Washington. 
 
 Kim Jong Un's speech took North Koreans gathered at Kim Il Sung Square and around televisions across the country by surprise. His father, late leader Kim Jong Il, addressed the public only once in his lifetime. 
 
 Appearing calm and measured as he read the 20-minute speech, Kim Jong Un covered a wide range of topics, from foreign policy to the economy. His speech, and a military parade that followed, capped the carefully choreographed festivities commemorating Kim Il Sung's birthday. 
 
 It was the best look yet the outside world has had of the young Kim, who is believed to be in his late twenties. 
 
 Punctuating Kim's message that the North will continue to pour funds into its military, the parade culminated with the unveiling of a new long-range missile, though it's not clear how powerful or significant the addition to the North Korean arsenal is. Some analysts suggested it might have been a dummy designed to dupe outside observers. 
 
 Although the rocket launch Friday was a huge, costly embarrassment for the new leadership, Kim's address was seen by analysts as an expression of confidence by the young leader and meant to show that he is firmly in control. 
 
 "Superiority in military technology is no longer monopolized by imperialists, and the era of enemies using atomic bombs to threaten and blackmail us is forever over," Kim said. 
 
 His message suggested no significant changes in national policy _ the "Military First" strategy has long been at the center of North Korea's decision-making process. 
 
 But there was strong symbolism in the images of the new leader addressing the country on state TV and then watching _ and often laughing and gesturing in relaxed conversation with senior officials _ as the cream of his nation's 1.2 million-strong military marched by. 
 
 Outside analysts have raised worries about how Kim, who has been seen but not publicly heard since taking over after his father's December death, would govern a country that has a nuclear weapons program and has previously threatened Seoul and Washington with war. 
 
 At the celebration of Kim Il Sung, he appeared to clear his first hurdle. 
 
 The speech was a good "first impression for his people and for the world," said Hajime Izumi, a North Korea expert at Japan's Shizuoka University. "He demonstrated that he can speak in public fairly well, and at this stage that in itself _ more than what he actually said _ is important. I think we might be seeing him speak in public more often, and show a different style than his father." 
 
 Kim said he will strengthen North Korea's defenses by placing the country's "first, second and third" priorities on military might. But he said he is open to working with foreign countries that do not have hostile policies toward his nation, and said he would strive to reunify Korea. 
 
 He also stressed the importance of national unity, calling his country "Kim Il Sung's Korea" rather than North Korea. 
 
 "That suggests to me that they want to let the country, and the world, know that this is a 'new' country," said Han S. Park, a University of Georgia professor who works frequently with top U.S. and North Korean officials, after watching the events in Pyongyang. 
 
 The young leader said he will aggressively pursue economic growth to improve people's daily lives. North Korea has suffered decades of economic hardship following a famine in the mid-1990s and the loss of aid from the Soviet Union. Kim Jong Un's formal three-year succession has coincided with a push to improve the economy by employing modern technology. 
 
 Kim made no direct mention of the rocket failure. But North Korea's state media made an extraordinary announcement hours after the launch, saying that the attempt to send a satellite into space had flopped. It still claims past launches succeeded, which international experts deny. 
 
 Concerns remain high that North Korea may now feel itself under pressure to make up for the botched rocket launch with a nuclear test _ as it did in 2006 and 2009. 
 
 The finale in Sunday's military parade added to the worries over North Korea's military. But analysts in Japan and South Korea said further examination is needed to determine whether it's a new intercontinental ballistic missile that North Korea reportedly has been building. 
 
 Narushige Michishita, a North Korea military expert at Japan's National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, said the missile appeared to be new, but strongly resembled the rocket used on Friday and also the long-range Taepodong-2, which North Korea first launched, unsuccessfully, in 2006. 
 
 He said it probably has three stages but did not appear to be big enough to have the 15,000-kilometer (9,000-mile) range needed to effectively attack the United States, which would be the goal of an ICBM for the North. 
 
 "I don't think this is a serious ICBM," Michishita said. "Putting it on display has a psychological impact, and that would have been greater if Friday's launch had worked. But North Korea has a very bad record with long-range missiles. It think this is more a propaganda ploy than a military advance." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Sam Kim, Foster Klug and Eric Talmadge in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.
– North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appears to share his father's fondness for rockets—but not his aversion to public speaking. Kim spoke to North Korea in a televised New Year's Day address, the first such broadcast in 19 years, the BBC reports. Kim Jong Il almost never addressed the public, and the last such New Year's broadcast in Pyongyang was from Kim's grandfather, Kim Il Sung, in 1994. In the address, Kim called for a "radical turnabout" that would transform North Korea into an "economic giant." He called for unity between North and South Korea, although he referred to agreements signed years ago that new South Korean leader Park Geun Hye may be reluctant to implement, the Washington Post reports. He stressed that military power remains a top national priority. "The military might of a country represents its national strength," he said. "Only when it builds up its military might in every way can it develop into a thriving country."