North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's most trusted policy adviser has been removed from one of his posts, according to a politician in South Korea.

NORTH Korea introduced its heir apparent to the world yesterday, a chubby- faced young man with a serious expression, combed back hair cut high and tight on the sides and wearing a communist-style black suit.

NORTH KOREA will this week launch its biggest political meeting for 30 years, apparently paving the way for another dynastic succession in the impoverished hardline communist nation.

South Korean officials travelled today to North Korea for the first meeting between the two governments in more than a year, amid tension over Pyongyang's moves to restart its nuclear programme following a defiant rocket launch.

North Korea said it will resume disabling its main nuclear complex after the US removed the country from a terrorism blacklist – a breakthrough expected to energise stalled international talks over the communist nation’s atomic programmes.