North Korean leader Kim Jong-il dies
According to a state-run television North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has died at the age of 69. The announcement said that Mr Kim died on a train while visiting an area outside the capital. He has led the communist nation since the death of his father in 1994.
Kim Jong-il was one of the world's most reclusive and enigmatic leaders, presiding over a secretive and internationally isolated country.
The world's only hereditary communist ruler, he was criticised for flagrant human rights abuses and for threatening the stability of the region by pursuing a nuclear weapons programme and testing long-range missiles.