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Subscribe to RSSSEOUL, South Korea -- Kim Jong Il, North Korea's mercurial and enigmatic leader, has died. He was 69.
A state television presenter made the announcement Monday, saying that the leader died Saturday on a train trip, Reuters reported. The announcer said he had died of physical and mental over-work on his way to give "field guidance."
Kim is 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 state media.
The 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.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for more updates.
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lol, he is dead.
Here's comes the Team America song and new South Park episode with Kim Jong II in Hell with Saddam and Satan.
Good riddance!
Now a 23 year old Nutcase with Nukes who is friends with Iran. This will be fun
Another tyrant gone...
Only one JA left to throw out of office. Happy trails Obama, keep the change you'll need it to buy your old seat back in Chi town.
With this nut gone, maybe North Korea can begin to move forward for a better future. Only time will tell if this new young and inexperienced leader will move forward for a peaceful resolution and a better Korea.
Rot in Hell where you belong, and you won't be missed.
Rest in peace. I hope his son can turn the situation positively and open up the north and finish with this stupid gaming and gambling that's been going on for decades.
Late night TV is not going to like this.
.
Guess he got upset over this posting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zexit7Tk1GA
(a.k.a. The Great Leader's Glorious Smile)
This could be either very good or very bad depending on the attitudes we see from his successor Kim Jong Un. We may see and opening up of North Korea and an end to their nuclear program and militarism or we may now be dealing with a twenty something kid on a power trip who has nuclear weapons. Only time will tell whether Kim Jong Un turns out to be a reformer, more of the same, or even more militaristic than his father. Lets all hope it is the former for the good of the rest of the world.
OBAMA killed him... Now all thats left to rid the world of is the Iranian leader.
The new boss may very well be like the old boss but experience has taught to expect the best yet plan for the worst.
Good riddance!
JS in SD,
Kim Un would have to murder all of his high ranking military officials, like Stalin did, and start over for anything good to come out of it.
speaking ill of the dead ...takes a whole new direction...speaking death of the il...
I'm not sure if this is good news. Kim Jong Un is less restrained at his age then Kim Jong Il was.
With that said, good riddance Kim Jong Il. I believe he will be spending his time with every scorn woman that was sent to a NK death camp. Seeing as how, "hell hath not fury as a woman scorn"!!
Americans are stupid, that is all I can say by reading all the stupid comments posted on here. Bush belongs with Satan, not King Jong Il and Saddam Hussein.
This all plays into the world ending on December 21, 2012. His son will help with ushering in the destruction of the world. Mark my words.
More like Kim Jong Terminally ill!
Well if the son takes over...it could be dangerous for the world. If the military takes over...it will be dangerous for the world.
Lets see If I am reading you right Nihal, You believe that Bush deserves Hell but a communist dictator and a terrorist with no regard for human life belong where? Bush may have not been our best President but to call him worse says that you severely lack education or perhaps have been living under a rock. Or is Nihal your screen name Kim Jong Un?! Because then I understand you defending Daddy and Uncle Saddam, because thats what ignorant children do.
Religious fundamentalism tends to bring out the worst in both neocons and liberals -- along with everyone else.
Can someone please tell Dick-head Cheney to follow suit?
nihal...........STFU
Death of a golf legend :(
Gabriel and Lisa, DNFTT!
zippy-889047 - I think we should deport you to North Korea.
Kilobyte - Seems to me, you conservative republican dotes are the ones who are the most in favor of starting a war. When you do, it 'focuses' the minds of the American people away from the problems at home. May I remind you once again, Obama has NOT started any wars. He was handed them to him from the biggest JA in american history = "King George"
I don't remember Bush sending anybody to death camps or commiting genocide. But we do have verifiable evidence that North Koreans are killed daily for not worshiping the "Great Leader".
I'm not sure if this will be good or bad...
Suddenly I'm reminded of the Wizard of Oz: "Ding dong, the witch is dead...."
i wonder what the Son will do to make himself "Known" to the World.
Remember he has his aunt to guide him. I hope that he has learned that his country needs food to be a strong country and that he needs to make a hell of alot of changes.
AG 99. I like your comment.
Depends on how the rest of the world responds. If there are any Generals or high ranking politicos in Korea who have any interest in ending this isolation now might be the time.
A 20 something year old in "charge" of North Korea is an opportunity.
HA! So did I AG99...'cept he wasn't a "witch" if you get my drift!
marine doc----- i agree with you there. uuurah!
SEMPER FI
DANNY P
Go 8404!
You know of the old saying, the apple doesnt fall far from the tree. Lets hope this time its not the case.
Yut!
Col. Ghaddafi, Osama bin Laden, Kim Jong-Il, the world is getting rid of its cancer!
And Hugo Chavez & Fidel Castro are next in line.
Maybe even Cheney will get a fatal hear attack soon!?
Ahmadinejad????
Fidel is already dead. Hugo can't be far behind.
My list to Santa has been revised: No presents this year, just Iran's "Leader". Nicely wrapped with a
red , white- and blue ribbon, placed in his desert for his vultures. Don't mind that inbred Korean, his
own people will take care of him sooner or later.
Only when they get really tired of freezing and starving. But the Army is kept fed and warm and wants to stay that way. Fighting and dying for the workers' and peasants' state -- bummer. Fighting to keep my privileges vs. everyone else -- different deal.
I'd like to say good riddance but what can we expect from his son???
he might be a little il...
someone should check if he was really male or female :-)
One nut gone. I hope his son isn't as but a nut job as he was.
Is that even possible?
Speaking of apples, little focker, do you think we still have to send them food???
We have to feed their civilians since what little food they grow goes to their army. That's why the avg. NK is about 5'3" and 110 lbs.
He had a taste for cigars, cognac and gourmet cuisine. Meanwhile the "happy masses" labored for a bowl of cold rice at near starvation level and dared not speak their minds for fear of imprisonment or being placed into a mental hospital. I think when most of us think of "transforming the world" it may take on a different definition than that insane version. A selfish megalomaniac who spouted a dictatorship of the proletariat while smoking cigars, sipping cognac and dining on delicacies. I hope you enter a new era of enlightenment and prosperity citizens of North Korea.....whose next in line, his son? ugh. Democracy, ulitmately (no matter how long it takes) will root in everyplace as the masses of humanity awaken and demand the dignity they deserve. Lets just pray we don't globally fall under the control of a cigar smoking cognac drinker who possesses all the nuclear armaments to keep us all cowering. The age old saying "Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death" rings all too true.
I always thought he'd sooner die than scale back on their nuclear capabilities...
Good riddance!
And the world rejoiced!
North Korea would do very well to use this as an excuse to rejoin the world community. We're about to announce (the US) a plan to send them a lot of food aid. Unfortunately, I expect stupidity, and it is likely that the leader's son will have to do something quick to impress the military hardliners there. I wouldnt be surprised to see them do something stupid within the next couple weeks.
I wouldn't be surprised if the son didn't knock the old man off just to get the top job that much sooner.
Old man's been terminal for a while -- that's why he had to pick which son would lead. Somehow Marx and Lenin left out the part about turning the "dictatorship of the proletariat" over to your boys, so he had to go with his own criteria, which probably meant trying to guess which one would curry enough favor with the non-family inner circle to keep the dynasty going, which doesn't bode well. What sonny boy has seen of "leadership" is doing what you want while your people almost freeze and starve. Maybe this will be the last generation of this filth.
the immaculate one has died and did not get the chance to press the big red button. glorious day indeed!
Maybe it pressed it and it backfired!
Champagne!
eff that , i will chug down a few green bottles of SOJU !!!!! & celebrate :P
I'll drink to that.
Poor Kim Jong must have been quite Il :(
now that was funny!!! :)
Thank you, I'll be here all week! Don't forget to tip your waitress!
Already have...those are my votes on both posts.
you be illin'
Come now, let's not think ll of his memory.
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
I guess 12 is the comedy corner.
LOVEIT!!!
He didn't like the way that one of his citizens dissed him:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zexit7Tk1GA
good grief, Elk...i hurt my ribs on that one...
RIP Kim Jong Il
are you kidding me, hope he rots in hell
Only a white punk would have the name nigradick.
I think he was misquoting Ezio Auditore. The correct quote is "Requiescat in pace, bastardo."
Hope his son will make North Korea more prosper.
Your statement doesn't make any sense, to be more prosper you first need prosperity which North Korea will ever have under the boot of a communist regime.
They've been talking about this for the last year or so as a "what if" situation. I'm not entirely sure N Koreas generals will be too happy to bow down to a 20-something year old.
It's technically possible, but so is a supervolcano errupting just far enough away that i won't feel the effects but can convince my boss I have an excuse not to go in to work.
Hopefully N.Korea moves in a new direction for its people, now that this man is out of the picture.. I wish the Korean people all the best. North and South.
LOL North Korea being for it's people.
Hey Freedom Guess whose Taking his place?
SONNY!
Hopefully the new direction his son takes isn't South. They are the good Koreans, you know the friends of the US. Wait, they are the ones that are building that WTC Explosion building.........er......I mean a cloud building. Yeah, that's it!
So I don't know how many of you recall the #3 Son who is tapped to replace KJIl, BUT.... from what was reported last year - and the published picture, I know you can't judge a book by it's cover - but he had the look of an overfed spoiled clone of his father. I have little hope that the 3rd generation of NK dictators will do much for his country, other than smuggle in Krsipy Kremes, iphone 5s and ipad 3s for him and his cronies.
Just sayin'.
But as someone else pointed out, yay, the Wicked Witch of the East is dead.
who cares what they build...it didn't happen there. Once again, some is thinking the world revolves around US. It doesn't.
I wouldn't be too happy, his son is just not as if not crazier that he ever was.
Not to speak Il of the dead. He was too Jong to die.
He rived a verry ronery rife.
MOT from down under--
Now THAT was funny!!!!
Damn, you beat me too it.
Which is Worse, The Devil You Know or The Devil You Don't Know. Even if the kid is semi-normal there are many folks in the Hierarchy of North Korea who will not allow a standing down of position. Different Face, Same Pony.
In a culture dominated by a tradition of passing rights to the eldest, Kim Jong Il passed it, not to the 2nd, but the 3rd son.
Reason, he is more like his father than the other two. More likely to keep N Korea on the course it's on now and not make a change to his father's choices.
I see a civil war brewing in N Korea in the next few days.
Transition is often a volatile time; a potential opportunity exists. But I fear the people of North Korea have been pushed too far down -regime of fear for so long- an uprising is unlikely. I hope I'm wrong.
This was done because it was only number three son who holds the same radical views as his father,
the other two are wimps by comparison and therfore not considered worthy of rule.
If you understood the culture you would know that any sort of civil war is unlikely...unfortunately. What I would look for is some sort of action against South Korea, maybe firing on some of the islands or trying to sink another naval vessel.
I think that all of the senior military officers have already taken an oath to sonny for when this day finally came, but we'll see soon if that really meant something to all of them or not. I bet a lot of SK business leaders are scared $#itless about now, worried that modertate forces might win out soon in the North and that they will be taxed out the @$$ for years to help the "reunified" area catch up, and it's way more backward that East Germany every was.
I hope we keep our mouths shut and let China make the first public statement and diplomatic move
you sound like the wimp obama
john, Your right. I should probably keep my mouth shut
Reminds me more like Daddy Bush and boy George.
Why is Obama a wimp? We don't need to be over there anymore. Osama is dead and Al Qaeda isn't a factor anymore since the "Arab Spring" came. Just because you don't want to nuke everyone doesn't mean you are a wimp. Even our allies were starting to think of us as the big bully on the block. It isn't only N Korea that needs to join the rest of the world. I mean you know how much money our govt has wasted on wars that had no bearing on our real national security or prosperity? We could have rebuilt most of the infrastructure in this nation with the money we blew on Iraq and Afghanistan, only to depose the Taliban and waste one guy.
Bingo Kevin!!!
john2968894: I have an excellent idea for you--how about YOU going to fight overseas so you won't be classified as the whip that you are. Same with you, Kevin749492. You two are nut jobsbullies who believe that the only way to be a real man is to go fight somebody. Go ahead! Join the service and ask to go to Afghanistan. You sure can help out troops there. Make sure you ask to go to the front line, too.
Obama's a wimp? Let's see...killed bin Laden...helped take out Gaddhafi, got our troops home, and done a crapload of stuff. What have you done? Probably managed to not poop your pants. Also, I think we need to start dropping speakers over N Korea playing "America, F**k Yeah" on endless loop
right on Robert,
as long as we don't overbreed ourselves into overpopulation, there should be enough sunsine for everyone.
Let's hope his son has a better concept of what his government is doing to its people. Sadly, the entire population has endured a lifetime of brainwashing propaganda and it will take a long time for the populace to adjust, even if the new leaders are willing to open up and conform to international expectations.
Kind of like the Red, White and Blue and Apple Pie propaganda brainwashing we've endured? Or do you truly believe that we are the beacon of light for freedom and democracy in the world and that we go to war to crush the totalitarian regimes of other countries on behalf of their people and not for military contracts and exploitation of resources?
Yeah, Johnny, we should help guide the North Koreans to democracy, just like we did with Iraq! Them Commie bastards!
Ah, satire. It never ceases to amaze me.
Johnny, the RWB "brainwash" surely didn't take on you!
Actually Rlquall, it did. I am currently deprogramming. And I'm not alone, lot's of people are beginning to wake up. In case you haven't noticed, things are more @#$%*@ up right now than they have ever been. The illusion cannot be propped up forever, and the man behind the curtain is finally being revealed!
Don't take me as being unpatriotic. I LOVE my country. It's my government I have a problem with. And for your information, our Constitution as well as the Founding Fathers who wrote it talk candidly about what needs to be done by the Citizens when we fall on dark times such as now. I actually care about the Constitution, unlike the politicians of today. And this isn't a Republican/Democrat debate. Both parties have sold us out to line their pockets with special interest money. It is sickening what has happened to this great nation. But I have a feeling that things are changing for the better!!!!
Good. I hope he takes the express to the warmer regions.
Hope he is hell bend, if there is one.
Now we have to worry about his son.
Bub Bye Now Don't let the Door to Hell Hit Your ugly ass on the way in!
Of course now Sonny will take over!
I wonder how many will try and flee the country due to the power vortex as Kim-Jong Un will rise to glory in the starving utopia that is North Korea. I can see the headlines now: Thousands massacred in North Korea trying to cross the Chinese/South Korean border.