North Korea’s new leader delivered his first major public speech yesterday as the impoverished state celebrated the centenary of its founder’s birth, calling for a push to “final victory” despite a failed rocket launch two days earlier.

THE world watched anxiously as North Korea staged a huge funeral in the capital, Pyongyang, for former leader Kim Jong-il, searching for signs of what to expect from the isolated nation that may be close to attaining nuclear weapons capacity.

NORTH KOREA will shift to collective rule from a strongman dictatorship after last week’s death of Kim Jong-il, although his untested young son will be at the head of the ruling coterie, a source with close ties to Pyongyang and Beijing said.

SECRETIVE North Korea put its leader-in-waiting on display at a massive military parade in Pyongyang, showcasing the youngest son of current ruler Kim Jong-Il in a rare live television broadcast.