PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korea has officially named Kim Jong-Un as Supreme Commander, the country said Saturday, putting him formally at the head of the 1.2 million-strong military and strengthening his authority in the wake of Kim Jong-Il’s 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 early this morning.
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, military and people at a memorial for his father attended by hundreds of thousands.
Officials and state media have bestowed on Kim Jong-Un a string of titles as North Korea’s elite rally around him in the wake of his father’s death Dec. 17.
But the title Supreme Commander — and its formal approval by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party — is a clear sign that Kim Jong-Un is fast consolidating power over North Korea. It’s also the latest step in a burgeoning personality cult around him.
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.
Titles are an important part of North Korea’s efforts to link Kim Jong-Un to the myth-building surrounding the Kim family legacy. Kim Il-Sung, the country’s first and only president, retains the title Eternal President even after his death.
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.
“We declare solemnly and confidently that the foolish politicians around the world, including the puppet group in South Korea, should not expect any change from us,” the National Defense Commission said.
