North Korea has suspended a propaganda campaign to promote the youngest son of leader Kim Jong-il as his eventual successor, AFP reported last week.

Instead, the communist state is calling for solidarity around the current leader, AFP said quoting South Korean Vice Unification Minister Hong Yang-ho.

Succession speculation began in earnest after Kim, now 67, suffered a stroke around August 2008. Widespread reports since then said he had chosen his third and youngest son Jong-un to inherit power.

Beginning late last year, state media stepped up propaganda to justify the expected father-to-son succession but the publicity campaign came to a halt in mid-July, Hong said.

"Since July 15, North Korean media stopped reports in defense of a hereditary succession," Hong told a forum on North Korea policy.

"The North instead is putting great emphasis on protecting its traditional ideology (of its military-first policy)," Hong was quoted as saying.

Hong did not speculate on why the North suspended its publicity campaign.

Some analysts said Kim Jong-il had succeeded in winning the regime's support for his plan, and might have been concerned about weakening his own authority in the interim.

Others say Pyongyang is waiting for the right opportunity to announce Jung-un's nomination as eventual successor.