SEOUL- North Korean leader Kim Jong II, the mercurial strongman who styled himself as a “Dear Leader” while ruling over an impoverished police state, died at 69, according to North Korean state media. Kim was believed to have suffered from multiple chronic illnesses, but his death – reportedly from a heart attack while traveling by train on Saturday morning – was sudden. He had been grooming a son to succeed him and his death creates uncertainty about the future direction of a nation with few international friends but a nuclear weapons capability. His foreign-educated son, Kim Jong Un, who is in his 20s and is being primed to be the next leader, is largely unknown outside North Korea, to the point that even his exact age is debated. The elder Kim had raised his son’s profile and responsibilities over the past 18 months, but North Korea’s murky inner workings make it uncertain whether that succession will take. For nearly two decades, Kim both defied and baffled international leaders with his isolated regime’s nuclear ambition inflammatory rhetoric and surprise attacks on South Korea. Kim, who came to power in 1994 upon the death of his father, North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, led one of the world’s most enduring dictatorships, a repressive regime that has long defied predictions of its demise.
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