North Korean leader Kim Jong Il dies of massive heart attack at 69

Instability in North Korea and the region is expected to increase as his son takes power. 2012 will be a year to be watchful as with every new era things change dramatically and quickly, there's not much we can do but to expect it and prepare as best we can.
Peace-

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 'DEAR LEADER' KIM JONG IL
North Korean legend has it that Kim Jong Il was born on Mount Paekdu, one of Korea's most cherished sites, in 1942, a birth heralded in the heavens by a pair of rainbows and a brilliant new star.
Soviet records, however, indicate he was born in Siberia, in 1941.
Kim, a graduate of Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung University, was 33 when his father anointed him his eventual successor.
He had been groomed for 20 years to lead the communist nation founded by his guerrilla fighter-turned-politician father, Kim Il Sung, and built according to the principle of 'juche,' or self-reliance.
He took over after his father died in 1994, eventually taking the posts of chairman of the National Defense Commission, commander of the Korean People's Army and head of the ruling Worker's Party while his father remained as North Korea's 'eternal president.'
He faithfully carried out his father's policy of 'military first,' devoting much of the country's scarce resources to its troops - even as his people suffered from a prolonged famine - and built the world's fifth-largest military.
Kim also sought to build up the country's nuclear arms arsenal, which culminated in North Korea's first nuclear test explosion, an underground blast conducted in October 2006. Another test came in 2009.
Kim was an enigmatic leader. But defectors from North Korea describe him as an eloquent and tireless orator, primarily to the military units that form the base of his support.
The world's best glimpse of the man was in 2000, when the liberal South Korean government's conciliatory 'sunshine' policy toward the North culminated in the first-ever summit between the two Koreas and followed with unprecedented inter-Korean cooperation.
He cut a distinctive, if oft ridiculed, figure. Short and pudgy at 5-foot-3, he wore platform shoes and sported a permed bouffant. His trademark attire of jumpsuits and sunglasses was mocked in such films as "Team America: World Police," a movie populated by puppets that was released in 2004.
Kim was said to have cultivated wide interests, including professional basketball, cars and foreign films. He reportedly produced several North Korean films as well, mostly historical epics with an ideological tinge.
Kim rarely traveled abroad and then only by train because of an alleged fear of flying, once heading all the way by luxury rail car to Moscow, indulging in his taste for fine food along the way.
A Japanese cook later claimed he was Kim's personal sushi chef for a decade, writing that Kim had a wine cellar stocked with 10,000 bottles, and that, in addition to sushi, Kim ate shark's fin soup - a rare delicacy - weekly.
Kim is believed to have curbed his indulgent ways in recent years and looked slimmer in more recent video footage aired by North Korea's state-run broadcaster.
His marital status was not clear but he is believed to have married once and had at least three other companions. He had at least three sons with two women, as well as a daughter by a third.
His eldest son, Kim Jong Nam, 38, is believed to have fallen out of favor with his father after he was caught trying to enter Japan on a fake passport in 2001 saying he wanted to visit Disney's Tokyo resort.
His two other sons by another woman, Kim Jong Chul and Kim Jong Un, are in their 20s. Their mother reportedly died several years ago.
Kim Jong Un was unveiled as his father's eventual successor in September, 2010.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• North
• Korea
• Leader
• dead
• age
• 69
• son
• successor

[Zebonka]

Hmmm, very convenient... Kim Jong-il dies, and then a newsreader who looks SUSPICIOUSLY just like him but with lipstick 'tearfully' announces the death... hmmm.

[eric1970x]

@Zebonka Are you saying that's Kim Jong ill in drag reporting his own death? LOL

[gmako74]

This lady has to act like she's grieving or else they'll kill her.... You know she's really happy inside!

[MrNasrawe]

الله يرحمه ياخي لهجتهم صعبه شنق هنق ونق

[2203geo]

А ведь мы были когда-то такими же.

[top750]

خانتني العبره عليها ، يوم زارها الملك في فرحها وقالها يابخيله ماعزمتيني ، سبحان الله وانا افكر عندنا بس اثرهم مثلنا .

[nandu139]

Is she facing a camera or a gun? Probably both!

[Anbidas125]

@gmako74 I can see she's trying not to smile. lol

[ekennye]

She/he is being forced at gunpoint to act that way

Peace

[oasis59395]

تتذكر يوم قالها يابخيله ليش ماتعزميني هههههههاي