BBC News with Jonathan Wheatley.

The youngest son of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has been appointed to two top jobs. Kim Jong-un was named as a member of the central committee of the ruling Workers' Party and also included in the National Defence Commission. He had already been made a four-star general, and the promotions are widely seen as the beginning of a gradual transfer of power from Kim Jong-il to his son. Andre Vornic reports.

At 27 or 28 - even his age is a mystery - Kim Jong-un may now be the most senior young man on the planet. Of the three posts, the Defence Commission one is key. It is the highest policy-making body in this most militarized of countries. Taken together, Mr Kim's three new jobs mark him out as the future leader of a state that is isolated as it's ever been. But unlike during the previous dynastic transition, it now also comes with nuclear weapons and a collapsed society.