SEOUL (AFP) â€" Secretive North Korea finally put its heir apparent on show to the world Thursday, releasing a photograph of a chubby and serious-faced Kim Jong-Un seated close to his ailing father Kim Jong-Il.
Analysts said the issuance of the first-ever official photo confirms the young man's status as leader-in-waiting of the impoverished but nuclear-armed communist nation.
Official media published the photo of the son, as part of a large group of leading ruling party officials, two days after the party had bestowed powerful posts on Jong-Un at its highest-level meeting for 30 years.
Hours later, South Korean TV carried North Korean video footage showing a man who closely resembles the son applauding vigorously with other delegates during Tuesday's party conference.
The heir apparent is a mystery to the outside world. Even his exact age of unclear, although he is thought to be about 27. The only photos previously seen outside the tightly controlled state have been images taken during his time as a schoolboy in Switzerland.
"He takes after his grandfather Kim Il-Sung but he is short and stout like his father," Yang Moo-Jin of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies told AFP.
"The publication of his picture is tantamount to a declaration that Jong-Un is the heir apparent. It is also a signal that the junior Kim is launching official activities."
Official media did not say where Jong-Un was seated in the group photo but he was the only youthful face.
"We believe he is Kim Jong-Un," said South Korean unification ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-Joo, speaking of the young man dressed in a dark blue Mao-type suit and seated next but one to his 68-year-old father.
The United States and other nations are scrambling for more information about what would be the second dynastic succession, after leader Kim took over from his own father Kim Il-Sung.
US Central Intelligence Agency Leon Panetta will arrive in South Korea Saturday to exchange information about the succession, Yonhap news agency reported.
The son's name was never mentioned by official media until this week, when the leader made him a four-star general just before the party meeting.
Analysts say the North will likely seek to ease overseas tensions as it prepares for an eventual power transfer, even though the father appears still in control despite a stroke two years ago.
But the first inter-Korean military talks for two years ended without progress Thursday as Seoul demanded an apology from Pyongyang for the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship.
South Korean officers "strongly urged North Korea to admit to, apologise for and punish those responsible for the attack on the Cheonan warship", Seoul's defence ministry said in a statement.
The North refuses to accept the findings of a multinational investigation which blamed the March sinking and the death of 46 sailors on a North Korean torpedo.
No date was set for the next round of talks, Yonhap quoted a ministry official as saying.
After months of high tension over the ship, the North has lately made apparent conciliatory gestures to South Korea and the United States.
But it still vehemently denies involvement in the naval tragedy and condemns joint US-South Korean anti-submarine naval exercises which are being staged in the aftermath of the sinking.
South Korean officials "remain unchanged in their ulterior intention to harm the (North), backed by their American master," cabinet newspaper Minju Joson said Thursday, accusing Seoul of trying to spark a nuclear war with the latest joint drill this week.
Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young told a forum Seoul has detected signs of possible provocations by North Korea, especially in 11 border areas where the South has set up propaganda loudspeakers as part of reprisals for the sinking.
They have not yet been switched on.
Kim said Pyongyang "seems to be mainly focusing on forming a platform for power succession and easing its food shortage and economic troubles."
A North Korean ruling party delegation left Thursday on a visit to the country's only major ally China, state media said.
According to South Korean media the delegation was likely to brief Chinese officials on the party meeting.
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