North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, center, takes a photo with students following a New Year's Day performance at the Mangyongdae Schoolchildren's Palace, in this photo carried by the Korean Central News Agency, Jan. 2. Yonhap

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a New Year's Day performance by young students and emphasized the importance of education, state media said Tuesday.

Kim made the remarks as he attended the performance at the Mangyongdae Schoolchildren's Palace in Pyongyang the previous day, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"He called for renovating the contents and methods of education to make sure that schoolchildren acquire practical knowledge for socialist construction," the KCNA said in an English-language report.

Kim's "fatherly" presence was emphasized throughout the report, with the KCNA depicting the North Korean leader as "the tender-hearted father of the large family of the whole country."

The report also stressed the importance of the future generation, noting how the performance "reflected the determination of loyalty of schoolchildren to prepare themselves to be young revolutionaries and patriots upholding a powerful country." (Yonhap)