Seoul brushes off North Korea's 'bland' new year message

South Korea on Wednesday played down a rare new year’s message from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as “bland” despite his apparent overture to Seoul about reducing tensions.

But analysts said Kim’s call for a “radical turnabout” in his impoverished country’s economy could signal a more determined push for reforms to the moribund state-directed system.

“The message was bland and there were no ground-breaking proposals,” Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik, who handles cross-border affairs, told reporters.

Kim’s speech Tuesday was the first of its kind for 19 years, since the death of his grandfather and the North’s founding president Kim Il-sung. His late father Kim Jong-il almost never addressed large public gatherings.

The young leader stressed the need to build up the economy and ease tensions with the South.

“An important issue in putting an end to the division of the country and achieving its reunification is to remove confrontation between the North and the South,” he said.