N.KOREA HAS NO EXPLANATIONS RE MISSING NUKE DISARMAMENT DEADLINE.

SEOUL, Jan 1 Asia Pulse - North Korea greeted New Year's Day, vowing to strengthen its military power but missing a year-end deadline to carry through with key denuclearization steps it promised under an international accord.

In a New Year's statement, the hard-line communist country also renewed its long-standing demand for an end to the U.S. military presence in South Korea while holding out hope for improved ties with Seoul which will soon have a new president with a tough stance on it.

"We should constantly increase the military strength of our Republic by holding fast to the Party's Songun-based revolutionary line," said the statement issued in the form of a joint editorial by the country's three major newspapers published by the party, military and youth guard militia.

Songun, or the military-first policy, is the North's ruling philosophy that has been in place since leader Kim Jong-il took over power after his father and president, Kim Il-sung, died in 1994.

"Strong defense capabilities are symbolic of the independent dignity of Songun Korea and a basic guarantee for its prosperity," said the statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency. "Our Party is consistent in its revolutionary stand to hold the idea of giving prominence to the military affairs as the basic strategy in building a great, prosperous and powerful nation."

The North's 1.1-million-member military, the world's fifth largest, is the backbone of the communist regime.

The lengthy statement contained no surprises. Prominently missing was any mention of the North's failure to meet a Dec. 31 deadline for it to complete its promised disablement of its core nuclear facilities and give a full accounting of its nuclear programs.