Students in North Korea are being made to complete a three-year, 81-hour course on their Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un, according to reports, as he bids to assert his personality cult.

The course on "the history of Kim Jong-un" for secondary school students was made part of the curriculum this year, South Korea's KBS World Radio website reported.

However, the new course on the current leader is shorter than similar classes on both his father and grandfather.

KBS World Radio cites a copy of the North Korean Education Committee's "compulsory education outline", which details "the history of Kim Jong-un as an official school subject", and is "taught based on materials distributed by the Workers' Party of Korea and focuses on Kim's birth and early life".

There are apparently no textbooks, but the course is "said to be teaching Kim's quotes, theses and orders he gave to the ruling party and military".

It emerged on Thursday that Mr Kim has promoted his younger sister Kim Yo-jong to the position of senior official in the ruling Workers' Party, confirming her position as a key figure in the regime.

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Miss Kim, who is reportedly aged 26, has been made a departmental vice director within the party's Central Committee, North Korea's official KCNA news agency said.

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