Slideshow: Daily life in North Korea (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/39377392/displaymode/1247/?wbSlideShowId=39377392&wbSection=news)(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Slideshows/_production/ss_070817_nkorea/ss_070817_nkorea_tease.photoblog600.jpg) (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/39377392/displaymode/1247/?wbSlideShowId=39377392&wbSection=news)Elizabeth Dalziel / APFrom work to play, see pictures from inside the secretive country.Launch slideshowBy NBC News wire servicesSEOUL, South Korea -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for an end to confrontation between the two Koreas, technically still at war in the absence of a peace treaty to end their 1950-53 conflict, in a surprise New Year speech broadcast on state media.
Follow @NBCNewsWorld (https://twitter.com/NBCNewsWorld) The address by Kim, who took over power in the state after his father, Kim Jong Il, died in 2011, appeared to take the place of the policy-setting New Year editorial published in leading state newspapers.
But North Korea has offered olive branches before and Kim's speech does not necessarily signify a change in tack from a country that vilifies the United States and U.S. ally South Korea at every chance it gets.
North Korea raised tensions in the region by launching a long-range rocket in December (http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/07/15749172-us-sends-warships-as-north-korea-prepares-rocket-launch?lite) that it said was aimed at putting a scientific satellite in orbit, drawing international condemnation.
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