WORLD_ North Korea: live report

Kim Jong-un (C), son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (not pictured) visits Mokran Video Company in Pyongyang in this undated picture released by the North's official KCNA news agency September 11, 2011. REUTERS/KCNA

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North Korea: live report
AFP
Updated December 19, 2011, 9:52 pm

SEOUL (AFP) - 1053 GMT: The German government says Kim Jong-Il's death offers a "chance" for positive change in the impoverished, nuclear-armed and deeply isolated nation, my colleagues report from Berlin.

"This is of course a chance for things to change there but our expectations remain the same: that North Korea gives up its nuclear programme, that the catastrophic social situation of its own people improves and that it declares itself ready to open up in the political and economic spheres," a foreign ministry spokesman told reporters.

1046 GMT: Russia has sent condolences on the death of Kim Jong-Il, who visited Siberia in the summer in a rare trip to one of the Stalinist's state's few allies.

"The telegram will officially be posted on the Kremlin's website," a Kremlin spokesman told AFP.

Russian news agencies also reported that President Dmitry Medvedev had sent the telegram to Kim's youngest son and heir apparent Kim Jong-Un without providing further details.

Medvedev met Kim in August when the reclusive leader took a trip deep into eastern Siberia on his personal armoured train to hold rare talks on a number of joint economic projects.

1040 GMT: Japan has gathered senior ministers to discuss security concerns following Kim Jong-Il's death as the government offered rare "condolences" on the passing of a much-reviled man, my colleagues in Tokyo report.

Minutes after the noon broadcast by Pyongyang's official media, Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda cancelled a speech and rushed back to his office where he chaired an emergency security meeting.

Noda said he had ordered officials to beef up intelligence-gathering on North Korea, to work closely with the United States, China and South Korea, and to prepare for further unexpected developments.

"We will gather information to assess how this incident will affect the situation," he later told reporters.

"I have instructed (agencies) to prepare even for the unexpected to ensure this will not adversely influence peace and stability on the Korean peninsula."

1027 GMT: Former Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi, one of few developed-nation leaders ever to have had direct talks with Kim Jong-Il, recalls the North Korean leader as a "straight talker", my colleagues report from Tokyo.

Koizumi, who visited Kim in 2002 and 2004, said he thought Kim's death at the age of 69 was "unfortunate" and possibly represented a lost opportunity to re-integrate Pyongyang with the outside world.

"What I remember from the talks is that, rather than the dark image that one might have of a dictator, he was very upbeat and directly spoke his mind," said Koizumi, who retired from politics in 2009.

"It's unfortunate because I wished the path toward normalised relations (between Japan and North Korea) would have been paved while General Secretary Kim was still well, after having resolved the abduction, nuclear and missile problems," he said.

1018 GMT: China has expressed shock at the death of Kim Jong-Il, with analysts saying Beijing will do all it can to shore up its isolated neighbour and close ally.

The foreign ministry in Beijing said it hoped North Koreans would "remain united" after their leader's death, and pledged to help maintain "peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and the region".

"We are shocked to learn that DPRK top leader comrade Kim Jong-Il passed away and we hereby express our deep condolences on his demise and send sincere regards to the DPRK people," said ministry spokesman Liu Weimin, using the official name for the Stalinist state.

1008 GMT: Foreign Minister Alain Juppe says France is closely following the situation in North Korea after the death of leader Kim Jong-Il and hopes the isolated nation's people will now be able to "find freedom".

"We are very watchful of the consequences of this succession, hoping that one day the people of North Korea will be able to find freedom," Juppe said in the southwestern French city of Bordeaux.

0945 GMT: North Korean state television has aired hours of footage of Kim Jong-Il's "field guidance tours" to military bases, factories, stores and other installations and urged people to follow "the spirit of the great general".

State footage from central Pyongyang showed schoolchildren, workers and the elderly alike prostrate with grief in front of a portrait of Kim Jong-Il.

0930 GMT: State TV has broadcast pictures of ruling party members in one North Korean county crying out loud, banging tables and sobbing at news of Kim Jong-Il's death, my colleagues report from Seoul.

"I can't believe it. How can he go like this? What are we supposed to do?" said a distraught Kang Tae-Ho.

"He tried so hard to make our lives much better and he just left like this," said Hong Sun-Ok.

0910 GMT: United States President Barack Obama called his close friend President Lee Myung-Bak of South Korea at midnight US east coast time, the White House said.

"The president reaffirmed the United States' strong commitment to the stability of the Korean peninsula and the security of our close ally, the Republic of Korea," according to Obama's office.

"The two leaders agreed to stay in close touch as the situation develops and agreed they would direct their national security teams to continue close coordination," the White House statement added.

0902 GMT: A summary of the situation at 0900 GMT: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has died aged 69 of a heart attack, according to state media. The death has plunged the nuclear-armed, famine-ridden and deeply isolated nation into a second dynastic succession.

North Korea is urging people to rally behind Kim's youngest son Jong-Un, describing him as "great successor" to the leader who presided over the deaths of hundreds of thousands from hunger but still built an nuclear weapons arsenal.

South Korea has put its military on emergency alert but wants its people to stay calm, swiftly closing ranks with its close ally the United States. Analysts say is likely to be little turbulence in the North -- at least for now.

0841 GMT: AFP's reporter in Tokyo Huw Griffith reports that the national flag is flying at half mast at North Korea's de facto embassy in Tokyo. Around 50 journalists have gathered at the building -- officially the Tokyo headquarters of the North Korean residents association in Japan -- looking for scraps of information but were met by a wall of silence from officials.

0834 GMT: Grief-stricken North Koreans broke down in tears in the streets of Pyongyang after the death of leader Kim Jong-il was announced, Chinese media said Monday.

Shops shut, flags were lowered to half mast and some people removed red scarves -- the colour of celebration in North Korea -- or tucked them into their clothing, the Pyongyang correspondent of the state-run Global Times daily reported.

China's state CCTV television network showed footage of North Koreans sobbing on the relatively deserted streets of Pyongyang, while the Global Times said groups of people had gathered in front of the many portraits of Kim that are hung around the city.

0825 GMT: Residents of Los Angeles' Koreatown have told AFP of their cautious concern at what will happen in their motherland following the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il.

The 120,000-strong community is among the highest concentrations of ethnic Koreans outside the Korean peninsula.

"It's really very dangerous. This is very difficult," Koreatown resident James Lee told the local KABC-TV news channel.

"I think it's going to bring more turmoil," added an immigrant worker at the JJ Grand Hotel in Koreatown, telling AFP that Kim Jong-Un "might be worse than his father."

0805 GMT: Observers of North Korea, which has long alarmed the international community with its nuclear capability and erratic manner, have sought to dispel fears of an immediate power struggle or a military coup, AFP's Park Chan-Kyong in Seoul writes.

"This clearly indicates that Jong-Un is already firmly in power, and all key officials under Kim Jong-Il have decided for the past two days since Kim's death to support Jong-Un as the new leader," Paik Hak-Soon of Seoul's Sejong Institute think-tank told AFP.

"The North's top guys have already sorted out everything, and the regime seems to be stable under the new leadership. I don't expect any major turbulence or power struggle within the regime in the foreseeable future."

"The Kim Jong-Un era has already started."

Another analyst, Baek Seung-Joo of the Korea Institute for Defence Analyses, told AFP: "For a while the military and Kim's family will try to uphold Kim Jong-Un as their leader and unite around him.

"A power struggle is possible in the future, creating an obstacle to his succession because Jong-Un did not secure full public support," he said, adding that a lack of popular backing made him vulnerable.

0747 GMT: Video footage from China Central Television has shown people sobbing on the streets of Pyongyang. "How can I express all the sorrow... I can't say any more," a soldier said.

0730 GMT: Australia has urged calm following the death of Kim Jong-Il. Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said nuclear North Korea was the single most armed military zone anywhere in the world and it was at a critical juncture. "It is at times like this that we cannot afford to have any wrong or ambiguous signalling," he said.

"This time also presents an important opportunity to the new North Korean leadership to engage fully with the international community on how to improve their economy in order to properly feed their people and critically on how to deal with the outstanding problem of North Korea's nuclear weapons programme," Rudd said.

0711 GMT: China a close ally of its reclusive neighbour has offered its "deep condolences" on the death of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, according to Xinhua news agency reports.

0705 GMT: South Korean and US military forces stationed on the border with North Korea have stepped up surveillance by planes and satellites, a defence ministry spokesman has told AFP. "We are paying close attention to any movements by the North's military."

0645 GMT: South Korea's President Lee Myung-Bak has urged the public to go about their business and stay calm. President Lee held talks with US President Barack Obama about two hours after Kim Jong-Il's death was announced, media reports said.

0630 GMT: Kim Jong-Un has been called the "great successor" by state media in North Korea. "Kim Jong-Un's leadership provides a sure guarantee for creditably carrying to completion the revolutionary cause of juche through generations, the cause started by Kim Il-Sung and led by Kim Jong-Il to victory," the official news agency said, referring to the official ideology of juche or self-reliance.

0600 GMT: Many South Koreans have told AFP of their shock and fears over the death of Kim Jong-Il. "I'm worried there will be a war. I thought it wasn't true at first," Song Bo-Na, 22, a university student told AFP reporter in South Korea Nam You-Sun.

Businessman Kim Sung-Il, 49, told AFP that he hoped North Korea would change after its leader's death. "The death will be, and should be, the trigger for changes in and out of North Korea," he said.

"I'm speechless," Kwak Bo-Ram, 24, an NGO official also said. "I'm just shocked and worried at the same time.

"It was always a rumour before, not a confirmed report," she told AFP, referring to occasional rumours about Kim's death which surfaced in recent years.

0550 GMT: The Japanese government has offered its condolences. "We express our condolences upon receiving the announcement of the sudden passing of Kim Jong-Il, the chairman of the National Defence Committee of North Korea," Japan's top government spokesman Osamu Fujimura said.

Ties between North Korea and Japan have been fraught for decades, partly as a result of Japan's sometimes brutal 1910-1945 annexation of the Korean peninsula.

0520 GMT: AFP's journalist Ed Jones reports that the national flag is flying at half mast at the North Korean embassy in Beijing. Police are keeping watch as around 30 members of the foreign and domestic media have gathered outside the embassy.

0455 GMT: While little is known about Kim Jong-Un, the son and possible heir of Kim Jong-Il, experts believe he has traits in common with his father.

"Jong-Un is known to have the potential to become a strong, ruthless leader. He has a take-charge personality," Sejong Institute's Cheong told AFP. "As a result, as of the summer of 2010, Kim Jong-Un peddles influence, excluding in foreign affairs matters, on state affairs on a level similar to that of Kim Jong-Il."

0442 GMT: Japan's Defence Minister Yasuo Ichikawa has said no unusual military moves by North Korea have been detected since the announcement of Kim's death. But he said Japan would remain vigilant. Three of the six Japanese terrestrial national networks, including state broadcaster NHK, used regular afternoon news and information programmes to air the North Korean broadcast.

0430 GMT: Don Manzullo, a US lawmaker and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on East Asia, has called late North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il the "epitome of evil" and hoped his death would mark a new chapter for the authoritarian state. He said US lawmakers have watched with alarm as Kim sought nuclear weapons and caused "provocations" against South Korea.

0423 GMT: The United States has said it is "closely monitoring" reports on North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il's death and is committed to stability on the Korean peninsula and the security of its allies. "The President has been notified and we are in close touch with our allies in South Korea and Japan," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

0418 GMT: Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has called an emergency security meeting to formulate Japan's reaction to the death of the North Korean leader.

0405 GMT: Uncertainty over the future of North Korea following Kim's death hit South Korean shares, which tumbled 4.87 percent soon after the announcement was made.

0350 GMT: "Great mental and physical strain" has been cited by official state media as the cause of Kim Jong-Il's death.

0348 GMT: Following an autopsy performed on Sunday, KCNA said Kim Jong-Il died of a "severe myocardial infarction along with a heart attack".

0336 GMT: South Korea's government has gone on an emergency footing after the news of Kim's death, according to the South's Yonhap news agency.

0315 GMT: Official coverage of the death has urged the population of the secluded state to follow the late leader's youngest son Kim Jong-Un.

0306 GMT: A weeping announcer on official state television told the nation that Kim died on board a train during one of his field trips outside the capital.

Welcome to AFP's live coverage on the death of Kim Jong-Il, the leader of secluded North Korea, who, according to state media, died of a heart attack on December 17 while travelling on a train.


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