North Korea says it has officially named Kim Jong-Un as Supreme Commander, giving formal approval to his control of the country's 1.2 million-strong military and further strengthening his authority in the wake of Kim Jong-Il's death.
Kim Jong-Il's son and successor was given the title at a meeting Friday of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said in a statement.
Kim Jong-Un "assumed supreme commandership of the Korean People's Army" according to a will made by Kim Jong-Il on October 8, the statement said.
Kim has received a string of titles from the government and state media in the wake of his father's death on December 17.
But the title Supreme Commander is a clear signal that Kim Jong-Un is fast consolidating power over North Korea.
The North also warned Friday that there would be no softening of its position toward South Korea's government after Kim Jong-Il's death.
North Korea's powerful National Defence Commission said the country would never deal with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, a conservative who stopped a no-strings-attached aid policy toward the North in 2008.
The stern message also said North Korea was uniting around Kim Jong-Un, referring to him for the first time with the title Great Leader - previously used for his father - in a clear message of continuity.
It was the latest incremental step in a burgeoning personality cult around the son following the Dec 17 death of Kim Jong-Il.
The top levels of government appear to have rallied around Kim Jong-Un, who is in his late 20s, in the wake of his father's death.
Still, given his inexperience and age, there are 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.
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