North Korea introduced its heir apparent to the world Thursday, a chubby-faced young man with a serious expression, combed back hair cut high and tight on the sides and wearing a communist-style black suit.
State media published the first official images of Kim Jong Un, the youngest son of leader Kim Jong Il who appears destined to inherit control of the impoverished, nuclear-armed state.
North Korean television broadcast video of a meeting of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party held Tuesday, including images of Kim Jong Un, who was positioned in the front row during a speech and shown standing and vigorously clapping with other delegates in the cavernous venue.
North Korean authorities confirmed to TV news agency APTN in Pyongyang that the man shown in the footage is Kim Jong Un.
A photo of senior Workers' Party officials also appeared on the front page Thursday of the authoritarian regime's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper, two days after the party concluded its biggest political gathering in 30 years to elect new leaders.
An article listed the names of those in the picture, which was taken outside the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, where the embalmed body of the country's founder Kim Il Sung lies in state.
The still and video images confirmed what many analysts suspected for the past two years: that Kim Jong Un, believed to be in his 20s, has been anointed to succeed his father and carry the family's rule into a third generation. LINK
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