North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, 69, has died
Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s mercurial and enigmatic leader whose iron rule and nuclear ambitions dominated world security fears for more than a decade, has died.
KNS/AFP/Getty Images
Kim Jong Il, leader of North Korea since 1994, has died.
Ahn Young-joon/associated press
Passengers on a South Korean bus watched the news of Kim Jong Il's reported death.
associated press/file
Kim was believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008. He met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (right) in August.
Korea News Service/reuters/file
Kim Jong Il inherited power after his father, North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, died in 1994.
KNS/AFP/Getty Images
In September 2010, he unveiled his third son, Kim Jong Un (first from left), as his successor.
AFP/Getty Images
Kim Jong Il (second from right) was said to have been born in 1942 on Mount Paekdu, one of Korea’s most cherished sites.
reuters/file
Kim met with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in October 2000.
ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/Getty Images
Kim Jong Il shook hands with then-Russian President Vladimir Putin in August 2002.
REUTERS/file
South Korea's President Roh Moo Hyun posed with Kim after a meeting in the North Korean capital in 2007.
Former US envoy says North Korea’s future uncertain
Ambassador Stephen W. Bosworth, a former special envoy to North Korea, said that Kim Jong Il’s death is not a huge surprise to Korea watchers because the dictator had been ill for some time.
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