North Korea Leader Kim Jong Il Has Died

[JohnBrowdie]

Good riddance, and enjoy hell.

North Korea Leader Kim Jong Il Has Died

SEOUL—North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has died, North Korean state television said Monday.

Mr. Kim died from fatigue during a train ride on Saturday, a weeping television announcer said.

State TV also announced that Kim Jong Eun will take over as leader.

More

[Miss Mia]

North Korea Leader Kim Jong Il Has Died
WSJ

SEOUL—North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has died, North Korean state television said Monday.

Mr. Kim died from fatigue during a train ride on Saturday, a weeping television announcer said.

State TV also announced that Kim Jong Eun will take over as leader.

[Miss Mia]

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has died
CBS News

SEOUL, South Korea - Kim Jong Il, North Korea's mercurial and enigmatic longtime leader, has died. He was 69.

Kim's death was announced Monday by the state television from the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

Kim is believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008 but he had appeared relatively vigorous in photos and video from recent trips to China and Russia and in numerous trips around the country carefully documented by state media. The communist country's "Dear Leader" — reputed to have had a taste for cigars, cognac and gourmet cuisine — was believed to have had diabetes and heart disease.

The news came as North Korea prepared for a hereditary succession. Kim Jong Il inherited power after his father, revered North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, died in 1994. In September 2010, Kim Jong Il unveiled his third son, the twenty-something Kim Jong Un, as his successor, putting him in high-ranking posts.

[GeronL]

good riddance

[apples]

North Korea's longtime leader Kim Jong Il dead at 69
http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/18/world/asia/kim-jong-il-obit/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

(CNN) -- North Korea's longtime leader Kim Jong Il, the embodiment of the reclusive state where his cult of personality is deeply entrenched, has died, state TV reported.

He was believed to be 69.

Regarded as one of the world's most-repressive leaders, Kim Jong Il always cut a slightly bizarre figure. His diminutive stature and characteristically bouffant hair have been parodied by some in the West.

"He's a mysterious person -- I think by design," said Han S. Park, director of the Center for the Study of Global Issues at the University of Georgia and a frequent visitor to North Korea. "Mystery is a source of leverage and power. It's maintaining uncertainty."

But for the citizens of his Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Kim was the embodiment of the reclusive state, and well regarde

[apples]

This could be huge. If his son takes over I think he is more American leaning. They are asking what his legacy will be if history will judge him well on CNN.......................what a stroke of luck for the Regime in 6 party talks with N Korea right now about to announce a deal to stop producing its nuclear ambitions for aid.  Watching a announcer for N Korea crying while telling the audience he is dead. What was N Korea like before his rule? anyone here know?

[JohnBrowdie]

little dear leader looks like the product of every recessive gene imaginable.

[apples]

little dear leader looks like the product of every recessive gene imaginable.

I get a bad vibe from that kid, he will be no different than Dad I guess.

[JohnBrowdie]

the first thing he has to do is probably shake his money maker around and prove to the hard-liners in the NK army that he is as big a bad ass as daddy was.  he's already apparently shooting missiles around.  maybe he likes fireworks.

[GeronL]

These leaders are the only fat ones in NK

[jafo2010]

I suspect he will be hell on wheels for the first two years, and then anything can happen.  He will need to purge a few folks who he will fear will be a threat to his future and just to set the Stalinistic example that he can.  So, things will be unstable to the western intelligence agencies until he either cements his base support, or until he dies of exhaustion at the ripe age of 29.  We just need to wait and see.

[apples]

‘Great Successor’ takes power in N Korea
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/88cff610-29f3-11e1-a066-00144feabdc0.html

The death of Kim Jong-il threw the Korean peninsula into fresh uncertainty on Monday as the North Korean regime named the dictator’s youngest son as the “Great Successor”, rattling financial markets in the south.

In a solemn broadcast, a North Korean television newscaster announced that Kim Jong-eun would assume power after his 70-year-old father died of a heart attack on Saturday while travelling outside Pyongyang by train.
More video

“He worked day and night for socialist construction and the happiness of people, for the union of country and modernisation. He left us so suddenly,” said the teary-eyed newscaster.

Kim Jong-il’s death rids the world of one of its most ruthless leaders, a man who focused on turning the totalitarian state into a nuclear-armed power while starving millions of his people to death. But the ascension of his inexperienced son, reported to be no more than 28 years of age, could threaten the stability of east Asia as the scion of the Kim dynasty may struggle to rule a country buckling under the weight of sanctions, hunger and power cuts.

[apples]

Satellites document North Korea's dark ages
http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/19/9564314-satellites-document-north-koreas-dark-ages 

Alan Boyle writes

The death of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, serves as a reminder that the hard-line communist country has long been in the dark — literally. A white border highlights the dark spot known as North Korea in this visualization of our planet's city lights.

This iconic "Earth at Night" picture is based on data gathered by military satellites in 1994-1995, just after Kim inherited power from his late father, Kim Il Sung. The darkness shows how much North Korea has lagged behind its neighbors — South Korea, China, Russia and Japan — in electrification and industrial development. Updates of the data sets show that there's been no change in North Korea's city-light situation between 1992 and 2009. Check out NOAA's "Science on a Sphere" webpage for more about the "Earth at Night" satellite data project.

A different kind of satellite project shows where North Korea has made progress during the dark age of Kim Jong Il: For years, the Institute for Science and International Security has been using satellite imagery to document the state of North Korea's nuclear program. Pictures acquired from orbit over the past couple of years show new construction at the country's Yongbyon nuclear center.

[apples]

Number 3 at State Dept. on Kim Jong Il: Smart, Witty, Problem-Solver, Humorous, Engaged
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/number-3-state-dept-kim-jong-il-smart-witty-problem-solver-humorous-engaged_614495.html

Wendy Sherman, undersecretary of state for political affairs at the State Department, had some rather nice things to say about the reclusive Kim Jong Il, the dictatorial leader of North Korea who died a few days ago. She had met the rogue dictator, Josh Rogin reports, when Sherman "served as State Department counselor and North Korea policy coordinator under former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, [and had] traveled to Pyongyang with Albright in 2000."

An NPR obituary quotes the high ranking State Department official as saying that "He was smart and a quick problem-solver," and that "[Kim Jong Il] is also witty and humorous. Our overall impression was very different from the way he was known to the outside world."

    Sherman sat next to Kim at a stadium to watch a huge festival of synchronized dancing. She says she turned to Kim and told him she had the sense that in some other life, he was a "great director."

[natstew]

 The new guy looks like Chumlee of "Pawn Stars".