North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's son and heir Jong-un has been promoted to vice chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission. The commission is the militarist country's top decision-making body, and the promotion makes Kim junior the de facto No. 2 in the regime just five months after he was first publicly paraded at a rare party congress in September last year. The regime appears to be speeding up the handover of power a few days ahead of the ailing leader's 70th birthday.
According to a high-level North Korea source, Kim junior was appointed vice chairman of the commission at the April 25 Cultural Hall in Pyongyang on Feb. 10 in front of thousands of senior officers of the People's Army, the Internal Security Forces, the State Security Department, and the Ministry of Public Security.
His appointment in principle needs to be ratified by the Supreme People's Assembly, which meets in April, but that is a rubberstamp body and ratification a mere formality.