North Korea's state television showed top military officers vowing Tuesday to become human "rifles and bombs" to defend new leader Kim Jong Un.
Soldiers pledged to "live or die" with Kim Jong Un and shouted slogans such as "Devoted defense of Kim Jong Un," state television showed.
"We will build a 10,000-fold bulwark for protecting the supreme commander and become rifles and bombs to serve as Kim Jong Un first-line lifeguards and Kim Jong Un first-line death-defying corps," Ri Yong Ho, chief of the military's general staff, said, his voice resonating across the plaza as thousands of troops stood in neat columns.
A large signboard standing from the troops read, "Let's unite, unite and unite around dear comrade Kim Jong Un," the footage showed.
'Merciless retaliation'
In a well-choreographed joint pledge of allegiance, nine troops from army, air force and navy stood in a row and vowed "merciless retaliation" should their enemies attack.
Efforts to show Kim is firmly in control have provided a drumbeat of news reports in state media since his father, Kim Jong Il, died Dec. 17.
North Korea said also Tuesday it will issue special pardons for convicts, a rare move that appeared to be aimed at boosting Kim's popularity as he attempts to fill his late father's shoes.
The amnesty, to be issued beginning Feb. 1, is to commemorate what would have been Kim Jong Il's 70th birthday in February and the 100th anniversary in April of the birth of his father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung.
The North's Korean Central News Agency did not say what sorts of crimes would be pardoned or how many inmates would be freed.
The pardons will be the first such dispensations in more than six years.
The measure appears aimed at winning public confidence for Kim Jong Un as the country struggles to revive its troubled economy, said Kim Kwang-in, a researcher at the Seoul-based North Korea Strategy Center.
200,000 political prisoners?
A U.N. envoy on human rights in North Korea said last year that the country is estimated to hold up to 200,000 people in political prison camps. The North has denied the existence of gulags.
North Korea occasionally marks significant holidays by granting amnesties, and Pyongyang has promoted this year's Kim Il Sung centenary as a significant milestone in the country's history.
North Korea last conducted such a special pardon in August 2005 to mark the 60th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule, according to South Korea's Unification Ministry.
Meanwhile, Japanese media reported that North Korea had held secret talks with Japan in what is believed to be their first contact since the death of Kim Jong il.
Hiroshi Nakai, a former Japanese state minister in charge of the abduction issue, met the North's delegation on Monday for talks on the abduction of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 80s, Japan's Kyodo news agency quoted sources as saying.
The two sides are also believed to have discussed terms for restarting intergovernmental negotiations, the Mainichi Daily News reported.
The Japanese government regards North Korea's participation as a sign the North's new leadership "may be interested in improving relations with Japan through progress in the abduction issue," which keeps the two countries from normalizing diplomatic relations, one source said.
Japan and the secretive North have not held intergovernmental talks since August 2008.