It looks like Kim Jong-il’s son is going to have the chance to work with all those old guys I pictured here last week in the ROK Drop who appear ready to follow Kim Jong-il into the grave at any moment:

The youngest son of the ailing North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, has begun an apprenticeship in the country’s most powerful governing agency, a South Korean news report said.

Kim Jong-un, in his mid-20s and lately considered by many analysts in Seoul as a likely successor to his father, was recently given a low-ranking job at the National Defense Commission, according to Yonhap, a South Korean news agency, quoting anonymous sources in its report.

Yonhap saw the move as an indication that an active grooming of the son as the next leader has begun. His father was similarly prepared decades ago by assuming low-level jobs with the ruling Workers Party of Korea. Mr. Kim took over the North Korean helm when his father, President Kim Il-sung, died in 1994.

Like most news about the inner workings of the Kim family, the latest report could not be independently confirmed. South Korean media often carry conflicting reports about the Kim family. Yonhap had earlier reported that Kim Jong-un would be elected to the rubber-stamp Parliament in March as a way to speed up his apprenticeship. That didn’t happen.  [New York Times]