M
Mitsuhide Akechi
Guest
Pictures Of Kim Jong-Il's Son Released
1:49pm Thursday September 30, 2010
Osman Baig
The first images of the man believed to be North Korea's leader-in-waiting have been released.
Kim Jong-Un is the youngest son of the country's leader Kim Jong-Il, who is thought to be in poor health after suffering a stroke in 2008. North Korean state media first printed a photograph of a man who appeared to be Jong-Un, who was shown alongside dozens of military and government officials, including his father.
He was then shown on television at the biggest political meeting for 30 years. The only previously known images of him date back to his childhood. Speculation has grown Jong-Un - who is thought to be in his mid to late 20s - will succeed his father after he was made second in command at the ruling Workers' Party's powerful Central Military Commission earlier this week.
Little is known about Jong-Un, other than he studied in Switzerland
It comes as North and South Korea began their first working-level military talks in two years. But tensions have been raised after North Korea's vice foreign minister Pak Kil Yon said Pyongyang would continue to expand its nuclear arsenal to deter what it perceives as US and South Korean aggression. South Korea's Foreign Ministry spokesman Kim Young-Sun has said the comments were "against the expectation of the international society as well as our country".
