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.

Let us move forward to final victory

A jowly Kim Jong-un, clad in black and 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 in spring sunshine.

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

In a move that indicated Kim would stick to the “military-first” policies that have put North Korea on the verge of nuclear-weapons capacity, he lauded respectively his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, and his father, Kim Jong-il, as the “founder and the builder of our revolutionary armed forces”.

North Korea is believed to be readying a third nuclear test, based on intelligence satellite images and a past pattern of rocket launches followed by tests.

“Let us move forward to final victory,” the 20-something leader urged thousands of military and civilians as they applauded his more than 20-minute speech, the first time a North Korean leader has delivered a major public set-piece address.

Thousands of soldiers held up cards to spell out Kim Jong-un’s name and the words “strong and prosperous”. The crowd waved artificial pink flowers, celebrating the two dead Kims who ruled the nation in an event hosted by one of the country’s top generals, Ri Yong-ho.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency and YTN TV later cited military sources and analysts as saying the North unveiled at the parade a new long-range missile, presumed to be a ballistic missile with a range of to 6,000 kilometres.