KIM JONG UN SAYS COUNTRY IS STRONGER AFTER EXECUTION

In a new year message broadcast on state TV, he said "resolute action" had strengthened the country's unity.

North Korea announced on 13 December it had executed Chang Song-thaek after convicting him of "acts of treachery".

The move raised concerns of instability in the secretive nuclear-armed country.

Kim Jong-un said action to "eliminate factionalist filth" within the ruling Workers' Party had bolstered the country's unity "by 100 times".

Mr Chang was married to the sister of late leader Kim Jong-il, and is believed to have mentored Kim Jong-un when he succeeded his father in 2011.

Although seen as the second-most important figure in the country, he was dramatically removed from a special party session by armed guards and stripped of all his titles.