According to the state television of North Korean, Kim Jong Il, their longtime ruler has died. Although Kim's death was announced Monday, he actually passed on Saturday morning. He was 69.

Kim, who suffered a stroke in 2008, seemed to have been in good health recently by making trips to China and Russia along with trips around the country. It is believed that the communist country's "Dear Leader" was to have had diabetes and still struggled with heart disease.

Kim Jong Il inherited power after his father, revered North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, died in 1994.

In September 2010, Kim Jong Il unveiled his third son, the twenty-something Kim Jong Un, as his successor, putting him in high-ranking posts.His two other sons by another woman, Kim Jong Chul and Kim Jong Un, are in their 20s. Their mother reportedly died several years ago.

Kim's eldest son, Kim Jong Nam, 38, is believed to have fallen out of favor with his father after he was caught trying to enter Japan on a fake passport in 2001 saying he wanted to visit Disney's Tokyo resort.

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