Kim Jong Un, a son of top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Il, has been chosen into the leading echelon of the country's ruling party.

The official KCNA news agency reported early Wednesday that Kim Jong Un, the senior Kim's third and youngest son, was one of the two vice-chairmen of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) elected on Tuesday.

Kim Jong Il serves as chair of the 19-member commission, and Ri Yong Ho, chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army (KPA), as the other vice chairman, the KCNA quoted a decision of a plenary meeting of the WPK Central Committee.

One day before the appointments, Ri Yong Ho was bestowed the military rank of vice marshal, and Kim Jong Un that of general, a rank next to vice marshal and above colonel general.

Tuesday's plenary session was held after the 65-year-old party, which has led the country since its 1948 founding, elected earlier in the day the members and alternate members of the WPK Central Committee at a landmark conference functioning as a temporary WPK national congress.

Prior to the election of the WPK Central Committee at the party conference, the third of its kind in the party's history and the first in 44 years, delegates from across the country adopted a proposal to rename Kim Jong Il as the party's general secretary.

In addition, the historic gathering made amendments to the WPK Charter, the KCNA reported.