SEOUL—Kim Jong Il, the dictator who used fear and isolation to maintain power in North Korea and the threat of nuclear weapons to menace his neighbors and the U.S., has died, North Korean state television reported early Monday.
His death opens a new and potentially dangerous period of transition and instability for North Korea and northeast Asia. Mr. Kim in September 2010 tapped his youngest son to succeed him, though it isn't known whether the son will take control right away.
Mr. Kim, who was 69 or 70 years old, according to varying accounts, died from fatigue during a train ride on Saturday, a weeping television announcer said.
Mr. Kim took power after the death in July 1994 of his father, Kim Il Sung, who founded North Korea in 1948. The country, a declining communist industrial power when he took control, fell into abject poverty under his rule. However, Mr. Kim continued to command attention and relevance in the world by building nuclear weapons and selling other arms.
He staked his legitimacy on his father's 46-year rule. Kim Jong Il never called himself president of North Korea. Instead, he bestowed on his father after death the title of "eternal president," while he took lesser titles such as chairman of national defense and general secretary of the main political party.
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