PYONGYANG, North Korea - North Korea has named Kim Jong Un as supreme commander, the country said today, putting him formally at the head of the 1.2 million-member military and strengthening his authority in the wake of Kim Jong Il's Dec. 17 death.
An unannounced Workers' Party meeting Friday proclaimed that Kim Jong Il's son and successor, who is in his late 20s, "assumed supreme commandership of the Korean People's Army" according to a will made by Kim Jong Il on Oct. 8, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said in a statement.
The meeting of the North's ruling party came one day after the official mourning period for Kim Jong Il ended and senior military and political officials publicly declared Kim Jong Un leader of the party.
Officials and state media have bestowed on Kim Jong Un a string of titles.
But the title supreme commander - and its formal approval by the powerful Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party - is a clear sign that Kim Jong Un is consolidating power over North Korea. It's also the latest step in a burgeoning personality cult.
People are also reading…
Kim Jong Un should be "the only center of unity, cohesion and leadership" of the Workers' Party, North Korea's state media said, and the military should uphold the "songun," or military-first, politics laid down by Kim Jong Il.
The North has made great efforts to show the world a unified face, but Kim Jong Un's age and inexperience have raised questions outside North Korea about his leadership of a nation engaged in delicate negotiations over its nuclear program and grappling with decades of economic hardship and chronic food shortages.
The North warned Friday that there would be no softening of its position toward South Korea's government.
North Korea's powerful National Defense Commission said the country would never deal with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, a conservative who ended a no-strings-attached aid policy toward the North in 2008.
South Korea's Unification Ministry said Seoul will maintain its North Korea policy and not react to every statement out of Pyongyang.
