Korea News Service/reuters/file

Kim Jong Il’s death, after a long illness, ended 17 years of rule over North Korea, the isolated country that his father founded.

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Workers looked through a special edition of a South Korean newspaper that reported Kim's death.

Ahn Young-joon/associated press

Passengers on a South Korean bus watched the news of Kim Jong Il's reported death.

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Kim was believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008. He met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (right) in August.

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

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In September 2010, he unveiled his third son, Kim Jong Un (first from left), as his successor.

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Kim Jong Il (second from right) was said to have been born in 1942 on Mount Paekdu, one of Korea’s most cherished sites.

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Kim met with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in October 2000.

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Kim Jong Il shook hands with then-Russian President Vladimir Putin in August 2002.

REUTERS/file

South Korea's President Roh Moo Hyun posed with Kim after a meeting in the North Korean capital in 2007.