The life of Kim Jong Il

ARCHIVES : KIM IL SUNG AND KIM JONG IL --- Image by © CORBIS SYGMA

In this October 1963 photo from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, distributed by Korea News Service, leader Kim Jong Il when he was a student of Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang, North Korea. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP Images)

In this undated photo from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, distributed by Korea News Service, leader Kim Jong Il (second person from right) takes part of a souvenir picture with his friends. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP Images)

In this undated photo from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, distributed by Korea News Service, young days of leader Kim Jong Il as he works at the Central Committee of WPK (Worker's Party of Korea). (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP Images)

In this undated photo from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, distributed by Korea News Service, leader Kim Jong Il leads the firearms training of the February 2nd National Sport Defense team members when he was working at the Central Committee of WPK (Worker's Party of Korea). (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP Images)

In this May 21, 1971 photo from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, distributed by Korea News Service, leader Kim Jong Il talks with farmers when he was in the Central Committee. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP Images)

In this March 1979 photo from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, distributed by Korea News Service, leader Kim Jong Il gives advice at the shooting of \"An Jung Geun Avenges Hirobumi Ito,\" a narrative film. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP Images)

NORTH KOREA:File photo released by the Korea News Service dated October 1980 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il (R) and father Kim Il-Sung (front), attending an evening party to celebrate the 6th Korean Worker's Party convention. Kim Jong-Il was re-elected as head of the country's powerful National Defense Commission, Pyongyang Radio said 05 September, as CNN reported the title of president had been abolished in defense to Kim Il-Sung's father who died in 1994, leaving Kim Il-Sung as effective head of state. AFP PHOTO - KOREAN NEWS SERVICE (Photo credit should read AFP/Getty Images)

(FILES) This photo taken 19 August 1981 and recently released shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il (sitting-L) sitting with his son, Jong-Nam (sitting-R), Kim's sister-in-law Sung Hye-Rang (L-top), Sung's daughter Lee Nam-Ok (C-top) and son Lee Il-Nam (R-top). North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il died on December 17, 2011: Pyongyang's state TV said on December 19, 2011. KOREA OUT AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read HO/AFP/Getty Images)

(FILES) North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il meets with Korean People's Army personnel in this September 1988 file photo. North Korea said 07 January 2003 that the United States had embarked on a strategy of using sanctions to isolate Pyongyang and this represented a declaration of war. AFP PHOTO/KOREAN NEWS SERVICE

HANDOUT RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE AND EDITORIAL SALES - MANDATORY CREDIT \"AFP PHOTO / HO / KCNA via KNS\" (FILES) This file handout picture taken on an undisclosed date in 1992 and received from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency via the Korean News Service shows the current North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il (R) and his father and then-leader, Kim Il-Sung (L), inspecting a football ground in Pyongyang. North Korean supremo Kim Jong-Il died on December 17, 2011 of a heart attack aged 69, state media announced on December 19, 2011 paving the way for a third generation of family leadership under his son Kim Jong-Un. AFP PHOTO / FILES / KCNA VIA KOREA NEWS SERVICE / HO (Photo credit should read KNS/AFP/Getty Images)

RINSAN COUNTY, SOUTH KOREA - DECEMBER 18: Residents of Taziri wait for Red Cross food supplies in December 1995 in Taziri in the northern Rinsan county,North Korea. About 130,000 North Koreans are reportedly on the brink of famine and 500,000 have been left homeless following heavy rains. AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read CALVI PARISETTI/AFP/Getty Images)

(FILES) This undated photo released 24 June by Korea News Service and published by North Korean paper No Dong Ilbo shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il (2nd R) inspecting cucumbers harvested inside the 770th army base near Nyon Won power plant in Pyonan-Namdo. North Korean official media reported that Kim will mourn for his father for another year. North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il died on December 17, 2011: Pyongyang's state TV said on December 19, 2011. (B/W only) AFP PHOTO/KOREA NEWS SERVICE (Photo credit should read KOREA NEWS SERVICE/AFP/Getty Images)

370952 03: South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, right, hugs North Korean leader Kim Jong Il at the end of their summit meeting, June 15, 2000 at the airport in Pyongyang, North Korea. The two leaders held historic talks for three days in North Korea. (Photo by Newsmakers)

PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA: In this picture released 20 July 2000, Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) is welcomed by the leader of Democratic People's Republic of Korea Kim Jong Il (L) upon Putin's arrival in Pyongyang's airport, 19 July, 2000. Russian President Putin said after talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong II during a two-day visit in Pyongyang that North Korea has vowed to halt its missile development program in exchange for access to space rocket technology. (Photo credit should read ITAR-TASS/AFP/Getty Images)

PYONGYANG, SOUTH KOREA - OCTOBER 24: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il (L) toasts US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at a dinner in Pyongyang on 24 October 2000. The Albright visit is part of a coordinated strategy involving Washington and its allies, South Korea and Japan, to end the North's isolation and remove the threat of war in one of the world's most volatile regions. Other people unidentified. POOL/AFP PHOTO/Chien-min Chung (Photo credit should read CHIEN-MIN CHUNG/AFP/Getty Images)

PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA: This picture dated 26 August 2002 shows a portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il displayed at an entrance of the foreign ministry in Pyongyang. In a move ending decades of Cold War hostility, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is to make an unprecedented visit North Korea next month for talks with the Stalinist country's leader Kim Jong-Il, major Japanese media said 30 August 2002. Local agency said Koizumi would make a one-day visit to Pyongyang on 17 September. AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read SHINGO ITO/AFP/Getty Images)

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (L) shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il (R) after signing a joint statement at the end of their historic one-day summit at the Paekhwa Won guesthouse in Pyongyang 17 September 2002. AFP PHOTO/POOL

PYONGYANG, DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF: TO GO WITH STORY \"NKOREA-NUCLEAR-KIM\" (FILES) This file photo dated 11 January 2003 shows more than one million people gathering on Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang to hear political leaders hail North Korea's dramatic decision to withdraw from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT). With six-party nuclear crisis talks opening in Beijing, 25 February 2004, the key to the puzzle at the talks lies with one man, Kim Jong-Il, the secretive leader of the world's most reclusive regime who is a \"god-like figure to the people\". AFP PHOTO/XINHUA/FILES (Photo credit should read AFP/AFP/Getty Images)

DIAMOND MOUNTAIN, NORTH KOREA - JULY 16: (SOUTH KOREA OUT) Emotional South Koreans bid farewell to their separated North Korean families following their reunion on July 16, 2004 in Diamond Mountain resort in North Korea. The families return home after a final hour-long meeting during the 10th reunion of the family members separated by the North South Korean border. (Photo by Pool/Getty Images)

A South Korean protester holds a picture of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il marked with a cross, denouncing the North's test-firing of seven missiles in Seoul, Friday, July 7, 2006. South Korea said Friday that it had turned down a North Korean proposal to hold military talks this week, citing tension over the North's test-firing of seven missiles. (AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man)

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, left, smiles with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il at a farewell lunch in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, Oct. 4, 2007. The leaders of North and South Korea signed a wide-ranging reconciliation pact Thursday pledging to finally seek a peace treaty to replace the 54-year-old cease-fire that ended the Korean War. (AP Photo/ Korea Pool via Yonhap) **KOREA OUT**

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (C) visits a military unit at an undisclosed location in North Korea in this recent picture released by KCNA on August 11, 2008. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Japan that Washington would not remove North Korea from a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism on the initial deadline of Monday, Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said. REUTERS/KCNA (NORTH KOREA) NO COMMERCIAL SALES. NO THIRD PARTY SALES. NOT FOR USE BY REUTERS THIRD PARTY DISTRIBUTORS.

FILE - In this file image made off KRT footage distributed by APTN, North Korean leader Kim Jong II attends the first session of Supreme People's Assembly of the country on April 9, 2009 in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/KRT via APTN, File) ** NORTH KOREA OUT, TV OUT **

** ALTERNATIVE CROP OF TOK809 ** In this Korean Central News Agency photo taken on Wednesday, July 8, 2009 and distributed by Korea News Service in Tokyo, North Korea leader Kim Jong Il, center in the front row, and high ranking North Korean officials sit in front of a giant red flag with an image of his father late Kim Il Sung during a gathering at an auditorium in the capital Pyongyang to mark the 15th anniversary of the death of the country's late founder. (AP Photo/Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service) ** JAPAN OUT **

In this photo released by Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service in Tokyo, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, right, meets with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Il, left, front, in Pyonggyang, North Korea,Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009. Others are unidentified. Former US resident Bill Clinton met Tuesday with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on the first day of a surprise visit to Pyongyang, holding \"exhaustive\" talks that covered a wide range of topics, state-run media said.(AP Photo/Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service) ** JAPAN OUT **

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (front) inspects a cotton plant farm of the Korean People's Army's 1596 unit in an undisclosed place in North Korea in this picture released by North Korea's official KCNA news agency November 29, 2009. KCNA did not state expressly the date when the picture was taken. REUTERS/KCNA (NORTH KOREA POLITICS) QUALITY FROM SOURCE. NO THIRD PARTY SALES. NOT FOR USE BY REUTERS THIRD PARTY DISTRIBUTORS

(FILES) An undated picture released by North Korea's Central News Agency on August 4 and distributed by Tokyo's Korean News Service on August 5, 2010 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il (R) waving as people including soldiers applaud during a visit to the construction site of the Kumyagang Army-People Power Station in South Hamgyong Province. The US government on August 31, 2010 slapped sanctions on four people and eight organizations accused of aiding North Korea's government through illicit trade, the Treasury Department said. HANDOUT RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE AND EDITORIAL SALES - MANDATORY CREDIT \"AFP PHOTO / KCNA via KNS\" (Photo credit should read KNS/AFP/Getty Images)

FILE - In this Aug. 27, 2010 file photo released by China's official Xinhua news agency, Chinese President Hu Jintao, right, meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Changchun, in northeast China's Jilin province. North Korea will hold its biggest political meeting in 30 years next week, state media reported Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010, as observers watched for signs that the secretive regime's aging leader has chosen his son to succeed him. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Ju Peng, File) NO SALES

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il (seated 3rd L) sits with his youngest son Kim Jong-un (seated L) and younger sister Kim Kyong-hui (seated R) and newly elected members of the central leadership body of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and the participants in the WPK Conference, at the plaza of the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang in this picture released by the North's KCNA news agency September 30, 2010. North Korean state media released a photograph on Thursday of the reclusive state's leader-in-waiting Kim Jong-un. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il anointed his youngest son as successor this week, promoting him to senior political and military positions. REUTERS/KCNA (NORTH KOREA - Tags: MILITARY POLITICS) NO THIRD PARTY SALES. NOT FOR USE BY REUTERS THIRD PARTY DISTRIBUTORS

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (2nd L) and his youngest son Kim Jong-un (3rd R from Kim Jong-il) visit the cemetery for Chinese soldiers who died during the 1950-53 Korean War in Hoechang County, North Korea, October 26, 2010, in this picture released by North Korea's official KCNA news agency. REUTERS/KCNA (NORTH KOREA - Tags: MILITARY POLITICS) NO THIRD PARTY SALES. NOT FOR USE BY REUTERS THIRD PARTY DISTRIBUTORS

FILE - In this Oct. 10, 2010 file photo, North Korea leader Kim Jong Il, right, and his son Kim Jong Un attend a massive military parade to mark the 65th anniversary of the communist nation's ruling Workers' Party in Pyongyang, North Korea. Kim Jong Il, North Korea's mercurial and enigmatic leader whose iron rule and nuclear ambitions dominated world security fears for more than a decade, has died. He was 69. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File)

--- EDITORS NOTE -- RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT \" AFP PHOTO / KCNA via KNS \" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS (FILES) This picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on September 10, 2011 via the Tokyo-based Korean News Service (KNS) shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il at a military parade to celebrate the 63rd founding anniversary of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in Pyongyang on September 9, 2011. North North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has died aged 69 of a heart attack, state media announced on December 19, 2011, plunging the impoverished but nuclear-armed nation into uncertainty amid a second dynastic succession. AFP PHOTO / KCNA via KNS (Photo credit should read KCNA VIA KNS/AFP/Getty Images)

A tearful announcer dressed in black announces the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on North Korean State Television in this still image from video December 19, 2011. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il died on a train trip, state television reported on Monday, sparking immediate concern over who is in control of the reclusive state and its nuclear programme. The announcer dressed in black said the 69-year old had died on Saturday of physical and mental over-work on his way to give \"field guidance\". REUTERS/KRT via Reuters TV (NORTH KOREA - Tags: OBITUARY POLITICS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. NORTH KOREA OUT

epa03039607 The body of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is seen inside the bier as people pay their respects, Pyongyang, North Korea, 20 December 2011. North Korean state television announced 19 december that DPRK leader Kim Jong Il had died from a heart attack while traveling on his train on 17 December. According to state media, the funeral for the 'Dear Leader' as most North Koreans called him, will be held on 28 December. He was aged 69 as stated in his biography. EPA/KCNA