North Korea said Saturday that it has officially named Kim Jong-un as Supreme Commander, giving formal approval to his control of the country's 1.2 million-strong military and further strengthening his authority in the wake of Kim Jong-il's death.

Kim Jong-il's son and successor was given the title at a meeting Friday of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said in a statement.

Kim Jong-un "assumed supreme commandership of the Korean People's Army" according to a will made by Kim Jong-il on Oct. 8, the statement said.

Kim has received a string of titles from the government and state media in the wake of his father's death on Dec. 17. But the title Supreme Commander is a clear signal that Kim Jong-un is fast consolidating power over North Korea.

The North also warned Friday that there would be no softening of its position toward South Korea's government after Kim Jong-il's death.

1st time referred to as Great Leader

North Korea's powerful National Defence Commission said the country would never deal with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, a conservative who stopped a no-strings-attached aid policy toward the North in 2008.

The stern message also said North Korea was uniting around Kim Jong-un, referring to him for the first time with the title Great Leader — previously used for his father — in a clear message of continuity. It was the latest incremental step in a burgeoning personality cult around the son following the Dec. 17 death of Kim Jong-il.

The top levels of government appear to have rallied around Kim Jong-un, who is in his late 20s, in the wake of his father's death. Still, given his inexperience and age, there are questions outside North Korea about his leadership of a nation engaged in delicate negotiations over its nuclear program and grappling with decades of economic hardship and chronic food shortages.