PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korean leaders urged the nation’s 24 million people today to rally behind 20-something heir Kim Jong- Un as they mourned the death of his father, supreme leader Kim Jong-Il.
People in the streets of Pyongyang broke into tears as they learned Kim had died Saturday at age 69 of heart failure, announced today on state media.
South Korea put its military on high alert, and the United States, which officials said may postpone announcements expected this week on providing food aid and restarting nuclear talks, said it was in close contact with South Korea and Japan.
“We remain committed to stability on the Korean peninsula, and to the freedom and security of our allies,” said a White House statement.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said, “At the leadership of comrade Kim Jong-Un, we have to change sadness to strength and courage and overcome today’s difficulties.”
But it was far from clear whether the military will bless the continuation of the family dynasty.
One concern described by several Korean security experts is that the younger Kim could face opposition from more senior North Korean officials, including Jang Song- Thaek, who had been acting as a caretaker for the transition. In recent years, Kim Jong-Il tried to minimize the power of older party members, often demoting them — sometimes even banishing them to the countryside — so they wouldn’t form allies of their own.
Kim Jong-Il unveiled Kim Jong-Un as his successor a year ago, putting him in high-ranking posts. But little is known about the younger Kim. He studied for a time in Switzerland at a German-speaking high school in Liebefeld, a suburb of the Swiss capital Bern. Former classmates remember a shy but determined boy obsessed with American basketball and expensive sports shoes.
Kim Jong-Un regularly accompanied his father on trips around the country over the past year. Kim Jong-Il inherited power after his father, revered North Korean founder Kim Il-Sung, died in 1994.
South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak convened a national-security-council meeting after putting the military on alert.
The North said it would place Kim Jong-Il’s body in the Kumsusan memorial palace in Pyongyang and would hold a national mourning period until Dec. 29. Kim’s funeral will be held Dec. 28, it said.
In a “special broadcast” today from the North Korean capital, state media said Kim died on a train because of a “great mental and physical strain” on Saturday during a “high intensity field inspection.” It said an autopsy was done Sunday and “fully confirmed” the diagnosis.
Kim is believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008, but he had appeared relatively vigorous in photos and video from recent trips to China and Russia and in numerous trips around the country carefully documented by state media.
“It is the biggest loss for the party . . . and it is our people and nation’s biggest sadness,” an anchorwoman clad in black Korean traditional dress said in a voice choked with tears.
Asian stock markets moved lower amid the news, which raises the possibility of increased instability on the divided Korean peninsula.
Under Kim’s rule, the North accomplished the single milestone that his father had dreamed about, exploding two crude nuclear devices, one in 2006 and another in 2009, just months after President Barack Obama took office. But while the tests may have given the country a measure of protection against a U.S. invasion, which Kim Jong-Il and his military leaders long feared, they also deepened his isolation.
The 2009 test killed any discussion inside the Obama White House of reaching out to the North Korean leadership, especially after Kim largely abandoned agreements he reached with the George W. Bush administration to denuclearize.
North Korea, long hampered by sanctions and unable to feed its people, is desperate for aid, which lent urgency to the recent behind-the-scenes negotiations. Flooding in the 1990s that destroyed the largely mountainous country’s arable land left millions hungry.
Kim often blamed the U.S. for his country’s troubles, and his regime derided South Korea as a “puppet” of the Western superpower.
The Washington Post and The New York Times contributed to this report.
Major events
Feb. 16, 1942: Kim Jong-Il is born on Mount Paektu, the highest peak on the Korean peninsula, according to official North Korean history. Some sources say he was born in a Siberian village in 1941.
Sept. 9, 1948: Kim’s father, Kim Il-Sung, establishes the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the northern half of the Korean peninsula.
June 25, 1950: North Korea invades South Korea.
July 27, 1953: The Korean War ends in a truce.
February 1974: Kim Jong-Il formally becomes North Korea’s future leader.
Jan. 8, 1983: Kim Jong-Il’s third son, Kim Jong-Un, is born.
July 8, 1994: Kim Il-Sung dies of a heart attack, and Kim Jong-Il inherits power.
August 2008: Kim Jong-Il reportedly suffers a stroke.
Sept. 28, 2010: Kim Jong-Un is given leadership roles — seen as confirmation he will be the country’s next leader. The Associated Press
