Kim Jong-Chul (27) had recently become Vice Chief of the ruling Korean Workers’ Party’s organisation and guidance department, the Mainichi Shimbun said, quoting several unnamed sources close to the North Korean administration.

The position, regarded as one of the party’s most important posts, was assumed by Kim Jong-Il in 1969 before he succeeded his late father Kim Il-Sung, it said.

Kim Jong-Chul had an office in the same building as his father, from whom he often received direct guidance, the report said. The organisation and guidance department is seen as one of the most powerful of the ruling party, as it has the authority to shuffle personnel and censor other departments.

The son was now seen as front-runner to take over the world’s only communist family dynasty, as his two brothers had no positions in the ruling party which controls the reclusive state, it said.