North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has died, North Korea's
state radio and television reported in special broadcasts at noon Monday. He
was 69.
Kim, general secretary of the
ruling Workers' Party of Korea, died at 8:30 a.m. Saturday on a train while on
his way to give "field guidance" to workers, the reports said.
He died of physical and mental
strain from overwork, the reports added.
North Korea's official Korean
Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim suffered a serious heart attack on
Saturday.
The same day, the agency made
an official announcement that Kim's third son, Kim Jong Un, 28, would succeed
his father as leader.
But it is highly likely that
North Korea will become unstable during the process of power transition,
according to observers.
Referred as North Korea's
"dear leader," Kim maintained a dictatorship in the country for 17
years following the death of his father, Kim Il Sung, in 1994.
After he was named his father's
successor in a general meeting of the party Central Committee in February 1974,
he steadily solidified his power base until his father's death.
Kim had held key posts such as
Workers' Party of Korea general secretary; the Central Military Commission
chairman, which is the country's top post; and supreme commander of the Korean
People's Army.
Despite North Korea's economic
strain, Kim Jong Il took the lead of the country's nuclear and missile
development programs.
Under his leadership, the
country carried out two nuclear tests, in October 2006 and in May 2009.
Kim held summit talks with
former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in 2002 and 2004, in which he admitted
for the first time that North Korea had abducted Japanese nationals.
In a special broadcast by
Korean Central Television, a female announcer clad in black Korean traditional
dress reported Kim Jong Il's death. Kim's black-rimmed portrait was shown
during the news.
According to the "medical
conclusion" on the leader's death, which the KCNA reported, Kim had
received treatment for heart and cerebrovascular vessel failures for years.
His funeral will be held in
Pyongyang on Dec. 28 as a state event, and his body will be placed in the
Kumsusan Memorial Palace, where his father's embalmed body lies, the news
agency said.
North Korea has been
accelerating moves to establish a system for Kim's successor, positioning 2012
as the year for "opening the grand gate toward a great, prosperous and
powerful nation."
On Sept. 28, 2010, Kim Jong Un
was elected as a Central Committee member at a conference of party delegates
and named a vice chairman of the party's Central Military Commission, a new
post, at a general meeting of the committee.
He also was named a general in
the Korean People's Army.
The transition of power will be
the first for the country since Kim Jong Il assumed power.
Although he has joined the
leadership of the country's party and army, Kim Jong Un has not yet had enough
time to prepare for succession from his father. It remains unknown how far he
has assumed the reins of power and taken control of his subordinates.
Takayuki Nakagawa
The Yomiuri Shimbun
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