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Jang (director of the KWP's Administrative Department, which oversees much of North Korea's security apparatus) had shifted his support to Kim Jong-un in light of Kim Jong Il's "special affection" for his third son and out of consideration for his own future political power.

The development of a collective leadership centered on Jang appears to have emerged out of the recent meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly. Some analysts point to the NDC, of which Kim Jong-un is now reportedly a member, as the platform through which the succession will be carried out, much as the KWP was Kim Jong Il's platform. In addition to Jang, the NDC is now populated with powerful military and security officials with ties to Jang, including vice chairmen Kim Yong-jun and O Kuk-yol and members Chu Sang-song (minister of public security) and U Tong-juk (deputy director of the State Security Department). Many think this collective leadership, which probably extends beyond the NDC to the party as well, will provide the support network for a dynastic succession. In this scenario, Kim Jong-un would be the public face of North Korea, while Jang led behind the scenes.

When the succession will be made public is a critical question. Some Pyongyang watchers speculate that it will be attached to an auspicious date in North Korean history. Many point to April 2012, which would mark the 100th anniversary of Kim Il Sung's birth. Of course, the health of Kim Jong Il, which has appeared to worsen in recent months, will probably drive the timing of this announcement.

Kim, 67, has instructed officials to pledge allegiance to their leader-in-waiting, the reports said, after informing the military, politicians and overseas missions of his nomination in a secret message sent soon after North Korea tested a nuclear weapon on 25 May.

During Kim's convalescence, North Korea was effectively ruled by his brother-in-law, Jang Song-taek, who is married to his younger sister. Jang, who was officially named the country's second-in-command in April, has become a key Kim ally, even though the leader had him put under house arrest several years ago amid suspicions he was building a rival power base.

In January this year, reports emerged that Jong-un had been named as Kim's successor and last month it was reported that he had been appointed to the national defence commission, an obvious route for someone being groomed for leadership.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il has designated his youngest son to be the country's next leader, according to reports in South Korean media.Two newspapers and an opposition lawmaker said South Korea's spy agency had briefed legislators on the move. North Korean officials were reportedly told to support Kim Jong-un after the North's 25 May nuclear test.

Little is known about Kim Jong-il's youngest son, who is thought to have been born in 1983 or early 1984.

There is no confirmed photograph of him as an adult. Questions have also been raised over whether his late mother, a Japanese-born professional dancer called Ko Yong-hui, was Kim Jong-il's official wife or mistress.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il doled out foreign-made cars to senior intelligence officials to ensure their loyalty to his youngest son when he put the 26-year-old in charge of the country's powerful spy agency, a report said Wednesday.

Jong Un was serving as acting chairman of the National Defense Commission, the country's highest post, one currently held by his father, Japan's Mainichi newspaper reported last weekend.

Wednesday's Dong-a Ilbo report said Kim ordered senior officials at the State Security Department in March to "uphold" Jong Un as head of the agency. Kim told the officials to "safeguard comrade Kim Jong Un with (your) lives as you did for me in the past," the mass-market daily said.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il has been unanimously elected to a seat in North Korea's parliament.

State media has claimed a 100% turnout in Sunday's elections for the rubber-stamp Supreme People's Assembly.

Voting, which was compulsory, was for just one pre-approved candidate in each constituency.

"Our nuclear deterrent will be a strong defensive means ... as well as a merciless offensive means to deal a just retaliatory strike to those who touch the country's dignity and sovereignty even a bit," the state-run Minju Joson newspaper said in a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

Separately, a man reported to be the eldest son of the North Korean ruler, Kim Jong-il, added weight to reports that his youngest brother would succeed his father."Well, I hear the news by media. I think [it's] true," Kim Jong-nam said in an interview with the Japanese broadcaster TV Asahi. "My father loves very much my brother as his son. I hope he can do his best for North Korean people for their happiness and better life."

Kim Jong-nam had been considered the favorite to succeed his father, but reportedly fell out of favour due to his wayward lifestyle. In 2001, he was caught trying to enter Japan on a fake passport and reportedly told officials he wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland. His mother was the late actress Sung Hae-rim.

American officials say they believe that Mr. Kim, in rapidly declining health, is maneuvering to make his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, his successor, perhaps after a period in which his brother-in-law, Jang Seong-taek, would serve as a regent.

The nuclear test and the test-firing of six short-range missiles, the American officials said, must be understood within the context of this internal struggle to extend the Kim dynasty’s rule for another generation.

“The North Korean leadership cares about internal matters, not external matters,” said Wendy R. Sherman, who coordinated North Korea policy in the Clinton administration. “They care about external matters only insofar as it helps ensure the survival of the regime.”Under those circumstances, she said, North Korea is not likely to be receptive to incentives. And it may have concluded that having nuclear weapons is a necessity for its own preservation.

The Chinese President Hu Jintao has urged North Korea to return to the negotiating table over its controversial nuclear programme. Mr Hu told North Korean Premier Kim Yong-il to co-operate with efforts to resume stalled six-party talks on the North's nuclear activities.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told Mr Kim a day earlier that China wants to "actively push forward" the deadlocked negotiations. China's chief delegate to the nuclear talks, Wu Dawei, visited North Korea without fanfare in February seeking a breakthrough, South Korean and Japanese media reported at the time. Beijing has not confirmed the trip.

China has been hosting the talks which had been making progress until North Korea abruptly stopped disabling its nuclear programme last August. Talks in December failed to resolve a dispute with the US over how to verify the North's full range of past nuclear activities.

The Taepodong-2 rocket flew twice as far as any previous North Korean missile.

Although Obama described the action as a "provocation", the US and Japan have so far failed to win support from China and Russia for a statement condemning Pyongyang and tightening existing sanctions.

The Japanese foreign minister, Hirofumi Nakasone, today admitted there were divisions in the security council."China and Russia share the concern that this is a threat to the region, but they appear reserved and cautious as of now," he told reporters in Tokyo.

the United States and its allies have had serious disagreements over North Korea. Japan is prepared to obstruct negotiations until Pyongyang comes clean on the handful of Japanese kidnapped by the North some 30 years ago. The Chinese have wanted to moderate and ultimately change North Korea through reform and sizable economic support, but have little to show for it. Many of the cognoscenti see China as the ultimate arbiter compelling North Korean cooperation. That, of course, has not happened. China has its own interest -- keeping North Korea afloat -- and that's not likely to change. The U.S. and Chinese economies are now so enmeshed that U.S. leverage on China is very limited. South Korea's "sunshine policy," which provided large-scale aid in hopes of ultimately seducing North Korea, was despised by the Bush administration. (Ironically, a new South Korean government abandoned the policy just as the United States was softening its approach to the North.)

The U.S. administration seems content to resume six-party talks where they left off: completing the "phase two" agreement, exchanging fuel oil for disablement of the North's plutonium facilities, and an agreement on verification, the sticking point precipitating the breakdown of negotiations. Preventing North Korea from producing more fissile material makes sense. From there, the going gets increasingly tough.

The weight of evidence suggests that North Korea will be unwilling to give up its nuclear weapons for a long time, if ever. The apparent North Korean interest in trading the dismantling of its plutonium facilities for light water reactors will not likely go down well in Washington. It is not much of a deal.

North Korea says it has put its military on full combat alert as a big military exercise by US and South Korean forces begins.

"Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war."

The army earlier issued a separate statement saying all military personnel had been ordered "to be fully combat ready" in order to defend the nation.

A North Korean court sentenced two U.S. journalists to 12 years in a labor camp Monday, as the government of Kim Jong Il continued to ratchet up tension with the United States and its neighbors.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee, television reporters detained in March along North Korea's border with China, received harsher sentences than many outsiders had expected. But several experts in South Korea predicted that talks will begin soon to negotiate their release.

The US "will not accept" a nuclear-armed North Korea, Defence Secretary Robert Gates has told an Asian summit.

The US "will not accept" a nuclear-armed North Korea, Defence Secretary Robert Gates has told an Asian summit.Mr Gates said the US would "not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in the region or on us".

Earlier, the US said activity in the North could indicate plans for a new long-range missile test.

North Korea's threat to "weaponise" its plutonium stocks is "provocative" and "deeply regrettable", US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says.

The North said it would start enriching uranium and use the plutonium for nuclear weapons hours after a UN vote for tough new sanctions against it.

The US would vigorously enforce the new sanctions, Mrs Clinton said.

North Korea said it will "weaponise" its plutonium stocks amid threats to take military action over United Nations sanctions, state media said.Pyongyang has for the first time confirmed it is seeking to enrich uranium in efforts to develop nucealr weapons, it said. North Korea would view any US-led attempts to "blockade" it as an "act of war", the Associated Press (AP) said.

The UN sanctions include the inspection of North Korean ships, a wider ban on arms sales and other financial measures.

Korea analyst Aidan Foster Carter told the BBC Pyongyang's process was "out of control" and that nothing seemed able to persuade North Korea to stop its nuclear ambitions - neither sanctions nor financial incentives.