North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's younger sister has been elected as a parliamentarian, an official newspaper showed Thursday, in another indication that she is gaining a stronger foothold in the country's opaque power structure.

The election of Kim Yo Jong was confirmed for the first time, a day after North Korea's parliament convened a session in Pyongyang.

A photo in North Korea's leading newspaper Rodong Sinmun showed that she participated in the one-day session as one of the deputies to the Supreme People's Assembly.

At a once-in-a-generation congress of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea in May, she was elected as a member of its Central Committee.

When an election of deputies to the assembly was held in March 2014, her name was not in the list, indicating the likelihood that she won a seat in a by-election thereafter.

On Wednesday, North Korea's parliament conferred on leader Kim a new top title of chairman of the State Affairs Commission.

North Korea's official media said its constitution was revised to rename the National Defense Commission as the new entity.

Until the revision, Kim was "first chairman" of the National Defense Commission. At the four-day congress through May 9, Kim's title was changed from "first secretary" to "chairman" of the party.

The creation of the new state organ is widely seen by North Korea watchers as intended to provide the current leader an additional top title to help him further consolidate his one-man rule.

Given that the vice chairmen and most others picked as members of the commission on state affairs are nonmilitary officials, the latest move could also represent a clearer departure from the "Songun," or military-first, policy of Kim's late father.