Kim Jong Il, North Korean leader Died of Heart Ailment

Kim Jong-il, the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) who was also referred to as the "Dear Leader", "our Father", "the General" and "Generalissimo" died of a heart attack on Monday. He was 69.


Reports said he died of a heart ailment on a train due to a "great mental and physical strain" on Saturday, December 19, 2011, during a "high intensity field inspection," according to state television from the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

Kim Jong-il, also written as Kim Jong Il, was ranked 31st in Forbes Magazine's List of The World's Most Powerful People in 2010. He is known to be a mercurial and enigmatic leader whose iron rule and nuclear ambitions dominated world security fears for more than 10 years.

Kim Jong Il inherited power after his father, revered North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, died in 1994. He had been groomed for 20 years to lead the communist nation founded by his guerrilla fighter-turned-politician father and built according to the principle of "juche," or self-reliance, Associated Press said.