North Korea celebrates despite failed rocket launch

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.

A jowly Kim Jong-un, the third of his line to rule North Korea, read monotonously from a script in Pyongyang’s central square after goose-stepping soldiers and sailors showcased the North’s military power in a parade.

Smiling and joking with generals after the speech, Kim watched as the country’s missiles paraded past, a reminder that, despite Friday’s embarrassing failure to launch a rocket, North Korea packs a punch.