sentence1: SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea's rubber-stamp parliament appointed Kim Jong Il to a third term Thursday as leader of one of the world's most reclusive nations, buoyed by a rocket launch heralded in state media as "historic" but assailed elsewhere as provocative. State media said lawmakers re-elected Kim chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission at the opening session of the new parliament, an appointment that under the constitution makes him the nation's top leader.
sentence2: Kim Jong Il is the ex-chairman of the National Defense Commission.