North Korea confirmed today that a major communist party convention will be held next week as observers speculated that the secretive regime’s ageing leader was ready to give his son an important position to pave the way for his succession.

North Korea has threatened to retaliate against South Korea for taking it to the UN Security Council over the sinking of a warship, calling the action an “intolerable provocation”.

The youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has taken charge at the country’s spy agency to prepare him to inherit the leadership of the communist nation from his father, reports claimed today.

NORTH KOREA’s Kim Jong Il has anointed his 26-year-old son – said to be competitive, proficient in English and a heavy drinker – as the next leader of the communist state, it emerged yesterday.

North Korea’s Kim Jong Il has officially named his heavy-drinking, English-speaking 26-year-old son as the next leader.