Kim Jong Il, 1941-2011

Kim Jong Il, North Korea — Choongang Monthly Magazine/Newsmakers

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, bottom left, poses with his first-born son Kim Jong Nam, bottom right, in this 1981 family photo in Pyongyang, North Korea.

Kim Jong Il, the successor of his father's autocratic regime, died Sunday, December 18, 2011.

A photo from April 1992 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on the tarmac at Pyongyang Airport following a visit by then-Chinese President Yang Shangkun.

Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP Images

In this October 1963 photo, Kim Jong Il is seen when he was a student of Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang, North Korea.

In this June 1958 photo from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, Kim Jong Il (left) studies the general education curriculum with his schoolmates.

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.

In this October 2, 1977 photo Kim Jon Il has a test drive of a play equipment combat plane in Taesong amusement park, Pyongyang in North Korea.

This undated file photo shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Il working at his office.

In this March 1979 photo, Kim Jong Il gives advice on the shooting of the film "An Jung Geun Avenges Hirobumi Ito." Kim was passionate about movies and even constructed a film studio for his own productions. The Guardian reported in 2003 that the North Korean leader, unhappy with the quality of his studio's product, had a South Korean film director kidnapped in the 1980s and forced him to work on several films, before the director managed to escape.

This file photo taken in October 1980, shows a picture released by the Korea News Service of North Korea's Kim Jong Il (right) and his father, Kim Il Sung, who died in July 1994, attending an evening party to celebrate the 6th Korean Worker's Party convention.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il meets with Korean People's Army personnel in this September 1988 file photo.

North Korean leader Kim Il Sung and his son, Kim Jong Il, visit the Sonsan soccer stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea in this 1989 photo.

File photo taken in 1992 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Il (right) and then-leader, Jong-il's father, Kim Il Sung, inspecting a soccer ground in Pyongyang.

A photo dated September 1999 shows North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong Il visiting the Rangrim county township cooperative farm in Jagang Province.

Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with the leader of Democratic People's Republic of Korea Kim Jong Il during the official meeting in Pyongyang, July 19 2000. The Russian President said after talks with Kim that North Korea has vowed to halt its missile development program in exchange for access to space rocket technology.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il toasts U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at a dinner in Pyongyang on October 24, 2000. The Albright visit was 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.

A file photo, published by a South Korean newspaper May 25, 2005, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Il wearing a pair of platform shoes with heels about 4-5 inches high. The rare photo taken in August 2002 during a summit between Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok, confirms rumors that Kim had used platform shoes to increase his height.

This 2002 photo shows a portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il displayed at an entrance of the foreign ministry in Pyongyang.

Accompanied by military officials, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il walks during an inspection tour of the Academy of Logistic Officers of North Korea at an undisclosed location in North Korea, February 10, 2003.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il waits for the arrival of South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun during a welcoming ceremony at the April 25 Hall of Culture in the capital Pyongyang, North Korea, October 2, 2007. North and South Korea were proclaimed as separate nations in 1948, three years after the peninsula was divided between U.S. and Soviet zones of influence.

North Korean figurehead head of state Kim Yong-Nam (left), South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun (center), and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il watch a military parade during a welcoming ceremony in the capital Pyongyang, North Korea, October 2, 2007.

This photo taken on August 4, 2009 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Il posing with former U.S. President Bill Clinton and his delegation members in Pyongyang. The Obama administration sent the former president to win the release of two imprisoned U.S. journalists.

A photo released by North Korea's official news agency in 2009 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Il posing with military officers.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il applauds following the military parade in Kim Il Sung Square to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the communist nation's ruling Workers' Party in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Sunday, Oct. 10, 2010.

In this Oct. 10, 2010 file photo Kim Jong Un, right, along with his father and Kim Jong Il, attends during a massive military parade marking the 65th anniversary of the ruling Workers' Party in Pyongyang, North Korea.

North Korea leader Kim Jong Il's son Kim Jong Un attends a massive military parade marking the 65th anniversary of the communist nation's ruling Workers' Party in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Sunday, Oct. 10, 2010.

This picture received from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on December 3, 2010, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Il visiting the Hamhung Disabled Soldiers' Essential Plastic Goods Factory.

This undated picture, released from Korean Central News Agency on June 19, 2010, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Il inspecting a newly-built football stadium in North Pyongan province.

This undated picture, released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency and distributed from Tokyo's Korean News Service on June 7, 2010, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Il visiting the Taedonggang Combined Fruit Farm in Pyongyang.

This undated photo released on May 8, 2011 by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Il visiting the Pyongyang Textile Mill in Pyongyang.

This undated photo released on May 8, 2011 by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Il enjoying a performance by members of the itinerant art squad when he visits the Pyongyang Textile Mill in Pyongyang.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev welcomes North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il during their meeting in Ulan-Ude on August 24, 2011.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is about to write in a guest of honor book at the station of Novobureisky in Russia on August 21, 2011, 175 kilometers east of the town of Blagoveshchensk.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Il waves his hand from a car after the meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at Sosnovy Bor Military Garrison, Zaigrayevsky District, Buryatia outside Ulan-Ude on August 24, 2011. Kim Jong-Il on Wednesday met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Siberia for secrecy-shrouded summit talks on energy and food aid. The talks got underway at a military base in Ulan-Ude, some 3,450 miles east of Moscow.

South Korean soldiers watch a news reporting about the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on a TV screen at the Seoul train station in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Dec. 19, 2011. Kim Jong Il, North Korea's mercurial and enigmatic leader, has died. He was 69.