North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was reappointed as chairman of the National Defense Commission on Thursday.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said the 12th Supreme People’s Assembly --- the North’s rubber-stamp parliament --- pronounced Kim national defense chairman in its inauguration ceremony Thursday.

The North’s Korean Central Television covered Kim’s parliamentary approval in a breaking news report.

North Korea media, however, did not reveal whether the “dear leader” attended the assembly’s inaugural meeting.

Kim first became the North Korean national defense chairman in April 1993 while his father, the communist country’s founder Kim Il-sung, was still alive.

The junior Kim was then re-approved as defense chairman in 1998 and 2003.