N. Korea leader Kim Jong-Un gets new ’top post’

SEOUL - North Korea has created a new, supreme governing commission with leader Kim Jong-Un as its chairman.

The country’s legislative body, the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA), unanimously voted Kim as head of the State Affairs Commission on Wednesday the North’s official KCNA news agency said.

The new agency replaces the National Defence Commission as the country’s highest branch of government and supreme policymaking organisation.

Nominating Kim for the post, SPA president Kim Yong-Nam said it was the "unshakable faith and unswerving will of all service personnel and people of the country to uphold Kim Jong-Un ... at the top post of the DPRK".

DPRK is the official acronym for North Korea.

Cheong Seong-Chang, a North Korea expert at the Sejong Institute think-tank in Seoul, said the move effectively raised Kim Jong-Un to the post of supreme head of state.

"It’s commensurate with the title of ’President of the Republic’ given to (his grandfather) Kim Il-Sung in 1972," Cheong said today.

Kim Il-Sung was declared North Korea’s "eternal president" following his death in 1994.

-- AFP

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