South Korea ? North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has put his youngest son in charge of the country’s spy agency as a prelude to handing him control of the communist regime, a news report said Wednesday.

Kim visited the headquarters of the State Security Department in March, along with his 26-year-old son, Kim Jong Un, and told agency leaders to “uphold” his third son as head of the department, South Korea’s Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported citing an unnamed source.

Kim also told department leaders to “safeguard comrade Kim Jong Un with (your) lives as you did for me in the past,” and gave them five foreign-made cars, each worth some $80,000, as gifts, the mass-market daily said.