North Korea has reportedly appointed a senior communist party official as its new state security chief.

Quoting multiple sources familiar with North Korean affairs, the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun said on Saturday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un named Jong Kyong-thaek, a member of the central military committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, as the minister of state security.

The paper said that the appointment is in line with Kim's movement to prevent certain aides from becoming too powerful, adding that the North is also conducting a rare audit of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army.

Meanwhile, Kim Won-hong, who was known to have been removed from the post of the state security minister earlier this year, was named as deputy chief of the political bureau in early May.

Another Japanese newspaper, Tokyo Shimbun, quoted a source in North Korea as saying that Kim is working at a collective farm in Pyongyang as a worker.

The paper said that Kim appears to have resigned late last month and volunteered to work at a collective farm in fear of possible punishment.