Second-generation North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, who defied global protest to build nuclear weapons while his people starved, is dead at 70. The cause of death has not been confirmed, but many speculate Jong Il croaked from a heart attack.
Kim was a chain-smoking recluse who ruled his country for 17 years with an iron fist. He completely shut his nation off from the outside world due to the risk of his regime losing any dominance over his people.
"Kim Jong Il inherited a genius for playing the weak hand and by keeping the major powers nervous, continuing his father's tradition of turning Korea's history of subservience on its head," said Michael Breen, the Seoul-based author of Kim Jong Il: North Korea's Dear Leader, a biography. "We have entered an uncertain moment with North Korea."
source: bloomberg.com
