North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, 69, has died

PYONGYANG, North Korea?? Kim Jong Il, North Korea's mercurial and enigmatic leader, has died. He was 69.

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

Kim suffered a massive heart attack on a train on Saturday, the North's KCNA news agency said in a separate dispatch about his death.

An autopsy conducted Sunday confirmed the cause of death, it said.

The leader's son, Kim Jong-un, was at the head of a long list of officials making up the funeral committee, indicating he will lead it.

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.

Asian stock markets moved lower amid the news, which raises the possibility of increased instability on the divided Korean peninsula.

South Korea's Kospi index was down 3.9 percent at 1,767.89 and Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.8 percent to 8,331.00. Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 2 percent to 17,929.66 and the Shanghai Composite Index dropped 2 percent to 2,178.75.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45719209/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/

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