North Korean Leader Kim Jong Il, 69, Has Died

[Conservative]

North Korean Leader Kim Jong Il, 69, Has Died | Fox News
Kim Jong Il, North Korea's longtime leader, has died at 69 of heart failure, state TV reported on Monday in a "special broadcast."

State media reported that Kim died on Dec. 17 of a heart ailment on a train due to a "great mental and physical strain" during a "high intensity field inspection." It said an autopsy was done on Dec. 18 and "fully confirmed" the diagnosis.

 

[eots]

The great leader will be greatly missed he was one of a dying breed of surreal madmen tyrants in control of a nuclear arsenal...a true renascence man

 

[geauxtohell]

Hopefully this will lead to a step towards the unification of Korea and a reduction in the repression of the people of North Korea.

However, his son is set to take over and sounds just as screwy as he is.

 

[waltky]

Wonder if his son will continue his policies?...

Kim Jong Il's nukes, threats stoked world fears
19 Dec.`11 – Even as the world changed around him, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il remained firmly in control, ruling absolutely at home and keeping the rest of the world on edge through a nuclear weapons program.[/i]

Inheriting power from his father in 1994, he led his nation through a devastating famine while frustrating the U.S. and other global powers with an on-again, off-again approach to talks on giving up nuclear arms in return for energy and other assistance. Kim was one of the last remnants of a Cold War-era that ended years earlier in most other countries. His death was announced Monday by state television two days after he died. North Korea's news agency reported that he had died at 8:30 a.m. Saturday after having a heart attack on a train, adding that he had been treated for cardiac and cerebrovascular diseases for a long time. He was 69.

Kim, who reputedly had a taste for cigars, cognac and gourmet cuisine, 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 documented by state media. His longtime pursuit of nuclear weapons and his military's repeated threats to South Korea and the U.S. stoked worries that fighting might break out again on the Korean peninsula or that North Korea might provide weapons of mass destruction to terrorist movements. The Korean War ended more than 50 years ago in a cease-fire, and the two sides remain technically in a state of war.

Kim Jong Il, who took power after the death of his father, unveiled his third son as his successor in September 2010, putting the twenty-something Kim Jong Un in high-ranking posts. On Monday, the North Korean news agency dubbed the son a "great successor" as the country rallied around him. Few firm facts are available when it comes to North Korea, and not much is clear about Kim Jong Il, the man known as the "Dear Leader." North Korean legend has it that Kim was born on Mount Paektu, 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.

His father, Kim Il Sung, is the still-revered founder of North Korea. The elder Kim fought for independence from Korea's colonial ruler, Japan, from a base in Russia for years. He returned to Korea in 1945, emerging as a communist leader and becoming North Korea's first leader in 1948. He meshed Stalinist ideology with a cult of personality that encompassed him and his son. Their portraits hang in every building in North Korea, and every dutiful North Korean wears a Kim Il Sung lapel pin. Kim Jong Il, a graduate of Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung University, was 33 when his father anointed him his eventual successor. Even before he took over, there were signs the younger Kim would maintain — and perhaps exceed — his father's hard-line stance.

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[Article 15]

Man, what a total fuckhead that guy was.

 

[zzzz]

Usually a weak dictator needing support from the Army will start an international incident to show that he is not weak. So we can expect some difficulties in that area of the world specifically the island that they had the little fracas over recently. Its hard to say and it is possible the Army may just take over, a junta perhaps, and use the new guy as a figurehead.

 

[Truthmatters]

Those who inherit great wealth and power are not always bad people.

we can hope

 

[The Infidel]

Kind of funny.... he was carried to his final resting place in American steel

 

[waltky]

Died of a hissy fit...

Kim Jong Il died ‘in a fit of rage,’ according to report
January 1, 2013, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il died from a heart attack sparked by a “fit of rage” over a shoddy construction at a hydroelectric power plant, a South Korea newspaper is reporting.

According to the report, the late North Korea leader died shortly after being briefed about a leak at the plant.

“After being briefed about the leak, Kim Jong-il lambasted officials and ordered them to repair it,” the anonymous source told ChosunMedia. “He rushed to make an on-site inspection of the facility unable to contain his anger and died suddenly.”

North Korea announced on Dec. 19, 2011 he died of a heart attack caused by “stress and overwork” while on his way to a field inspection.

The Huichon power plant was one of the poster projects of the reclusive state’s hopes to become a “powerful and prosperous nation,” according to the report.

Kim Jong Il died ‘in a fit of rage,’ according to report | MyFOX8.com