Kim Jong Il, the longtime dictator of North Korea, has died of heart failure at age 69. In a "special broadcast" Monday from the North Korean capital, state media said that Kim died of a heart ailment on a train due to a "great mental and physical strain" on December 17 during a high intensity field inspection. An autopsy was done on December 18 and "fully confirmed" the diagnosis. Kim was believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008, but appeared relatively vigorous in photos and video from recent trips to China and Russia and in numerous trips around the country carefully documented by the state media.
Kim Jong Il inherited power from his father in 1994 after his father, North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, died in 1994. North Korea is preparing for a hereditary succession. In September 2010, Kim Jong Il had prepared for his third son, the twenty-something Kim Jong Un to be in high ranking posts so he could succeed his father. To read the remainder of the story, click on the above link.
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