N. Korea's New Year message urges allegiance to new leader

North Korea on Sunday urged its people and military to faithfully follow and defend its new leader Kim Jong-un "unto death," continue to uphold the instructions of the late leader Kim Jong-il and strengthen defense capabilities.

The North also pressed the United States to withdraw its troops from South Korea, calling it the main obstacle to peace on the divided Korean Peninsula.

"The entire army should place absolute trust in and follow Kim Jong-un and become human rifles and bombs to defend him unto death," the North's three major newspapers said in a joint New Year's editorial carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

"Let us defend with our very lives the Party Central Committee headed by the dear respected Comrade Kim Jong-un," it said.

The editorial jointly published by the North's leading newspapers of the party, military and youth militia is closely scrutinized by officials and experts in South Korea and other regional powers as it offers clues on the North's policy goals in the new year.

The North's repeated appeal comes as Kim, believed to be in his late 20s, appears to be consolidating his power he inherited upon the death of his father, the late leader Kim Jong-il, last month.

Kim has risen to the post of the supreme commander of the communist nation's massive armed forces, state media reported Saturday, in the latest sign that the late Kim's youngest son has been solidifying power.

Winning support from the country's 1.1 million-strong military, which served as a key backbone of the late Kim's totalitarian rule, is seen as key for the young leader in consolidating his power.

The North state media has described Kim Jong-un as a "sagacious leader of the party, state and army," and went on to praise the successor son as "an outstanding leader and a great sun," in what could be an attempt to ensure the second father-to-son power succession goes smoothly.

The late leader also assumed power in 1994 when his father, the North's founding leader Kim Il-sung, died of heart failure at the age of 82. (Yonhap)