By DPA,
Seoul : North Korea Thursday released a photograph of leader Kim Jong Il’s son and likely successor for the first time, a news report said.
The picture published by the state-run Korean Central News Agency shows Kim Jong Un seated in a group photograph at the right hand of his father, head of state Kim Jong Il, the South Korean Yonhap News Agency reported.
The photograph also includes other leaders attending a convention of the ruling Workers’ Party, where Kim junior was nominated to several high-ranking official posts, including four-star general, earlier this week.
It was the first known photograph of the 27-year-old Kim as an adult, who is apparently being introduced to the corridors of power in preparation for a handover of the leadership from his ailing 68-year-old father.
The current head of state was nominated to similar positions by his own father and then-leader Kim Il Sung at the previous party meeting in 1980, before taking over on his father’s death in 1994.