North Korea's young leader breaks the mold

Pyongyang, North Korea (CNN) -- For just a moment we can hardly believe what is happening.

The boyish leader takes a step towards the microphone, the massed ranks of the huge army he commands poised before him. And then he speaks.

The adoring crowd who have been chanting his name falls silent.

Kim Jong Un, not yet 30 years old, appears slightly nervous. His voice doesn't waver but his body moves back and forth restlessly and his eyes dart around. If his nerves betray him slightly, his words stay strong.

He stands atop the shoulders of the men who have gone before him, his grandfather and father. Directly below him hang the huge portraits of the man North Koreans call the Great Leader, Kim il Sung, and his son the so-called Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il.

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The third generation of the Kim dynasty pledges to build on his family's legacy. But already, just with this speech, he is veering from their path. It is something his father never did. North Koreans I speak to say they can't recall ever hearing his voice.

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To be here now is "the greatest gift I have received in my life," one man says.

Kim Jong Un is speaking to two audiences: his people and the outside world he stands apart from. The newly-crowned Supreme Leader has a vowed to try to unite the fractured Korean nation, still separated after more than half a century.

"We have suffered the pain of separation for nearly 70 years," he declares. "We have lived as one people on the same land for thousands of years to suffer like this is heartbreaking.

"Our party and our government will work with anyone who truly wants reunification."

But this is not a day for talk of peace. This is a military parade with all the menace this isolated nation can muster. To North Koreans this says they can defend themselves.

To their enemies, especially the United States, there is a deadly message.

"Our military has become a powerful military able to handle any kind of modern warfare, with complete offensive and defensive capabilities," Kim says.

"The foreign powers are not the only ones with monopoly on military supremacy, and the days of their threatening and lying to us with atomic weapons is forever gone."

It is 100 years since the birth of the founding father of the nation, Kim il Sung. Installed as leader by Russia in 1945 after the liberation and the separation of North and South Korea, he is still revered as a freedom fighter and hero.

To honor his birthday, the military, one of the largest on earth, shows off its arsenal. Soldiers -- men and women -- goose step with precision, while columns of tanks bearing the message "we will smash the United States imperialists" roll across the great parade square.

The latest hi-tech weapons then follow, including drones and missiles that could potentially strike targets thousands of miles away.

This is an army battle ready, a country still technically at war and soldiers determined to follow any order.

"With the strategy of the Great Leader Kim Il Sung, the dear Kim Jong il and Kim Jong Un, and with our bombs and weapons, we will destroy them," a group of soldiers tells me.

In North Korea the army comes first, no expense spared. While it shows off its guns to the world, many people go hungry. The military is well fed, but aid agencies say the country's rural population suffers from chronic malnutrition and stunted growth as they scrounge for food.

In a rare concession, Kim says this regime will not allow people to suffer any more -- as close as he could get to admitting the government had failed the people in the past.

"Our fellow citizens, who are the best citizens in the world, who have overcome countless struggles and hardships, it is our party's firmest resolve not to let our citizens go hungry again," he says.

Across the capital, people watching on are alive to this moment. When I approach one group and merely mention the name Kim Jong Un they explode into chants and loud clapping.

One man beaming at our camera says, "we want to tell the world how proud we are to have such a man to lead us."

Kim has inherited the power, adulation and responsibility few people could possibly be prepared for.

The world is watching and wondering if he will be different from his forefathers and whether he will even survive.

When the parade passes, Kim will face the reality of ruling this poverty-stricken, pariah state.