SEOUL, KOREA - The youngest son of North Korea's Kim Jong-II has been given a post in the ruling communist party in preparation for his eventual takeover of the leadership, a South Korean lawmaker said Tuesday.

Kim Jong-Un is expected to be officially named as successor to his father some time between 2010 and 2012, said legislator Yoon Sang-Hyun of the ruling Grand National Party.

"The son has taken on a deputy director-level position in the Workers Party of Korea," he told AFP, citing a confidential report he received from South Korean government officials.

The 67-year-old Kim, who reportedly suffered a stroke in August last year, is widely thought to be grooming his third son Jong-Un as successor. But the secretive state has disclosed no information on Jong-Un or any succession plan.

"Jung-Un's position (in the party) was confirmed for the first time," Yoon said.

He said the government report stated that the junior Kim was born in 1984 and graduated from Pyongyang's Kim II-Sung National War College - named after the North's founding president and father of Kim Jong-II.

The college is the North's top military academy. Jong-Un did not attend it full-time but received one-on-one tutorials from professors and military officials, the report said.

South Korean officials declined to confirm the report.

Information is scanty about Jong-Un, who is the second son of Kim Jong-II's third wife Ko Yong-Hee. No adult photo of him is publicly available. Some reports say Jong-Un attended an international school in the Swiss city of Berne under a pseudonym.

Kenji Fujimoto, a former personal chef to Kim Jong-II, has described the third son as "a chip off the old block" who closely resembles his father physically and in terms of personality.

Seoul's National Intelligence Service has told the lawmakers' intelligence committee that North Koreans have begun making pledges of loyalty to Jong-Un, JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said.