North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il dies at 69
North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il has died aged 69 of a heart attack, plunging the impoverished but nuclear-armed country into uncertainty, as it faced the second sequence of dynastic.

Leader "died of a great mental and physical stress" at 8:30 am on Saturday, during a train journey on one of his tours field, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

He urged people to follow his younger son and heir, Kim Jong Un, who is aged in his late 20's and was last year amounted to four-star general and given high positions of the ruling party, despite the fact that there is no common profile.

"All Party members, the military and the public should closely follow the leadership of Kim Jong-un, and protect and further strengthen the united front of the party, military and social, said mourning black-clad presenter.

KCNA said Kim died of "severe myocardial infarction, and heart attack," and that an autopsy was conducted Sunday.

The leader suffered a stroke in August 2008 that left him with impaired movement in his left arm and leg, and caused acceleration in succession.

The funeral will take place on December 28, Kim in Pyongyang, but no foreign delegations will be invited KCNA said. Period of national mourning was declared from December 17 to 29.

"We must hold high the banner of Songun (military first) policy, the strengthening of military power hundreds of times, and firmly defend our socialist system and the achievement of the revolution," KCNA said.

In the North Korea's embassy in Beijing, capital of China, its main ally, the national flag flew at half mast.

North Korea's propaganda machine rolled into action to create the same personality cult for Jong Un, who surrounded his father's and grandfather's Kim Il Sung, the founder and 'eternal leader of North Korea, who died in 1994.

However, little is known about the succession. A senior South Korean cross-border affairs said last month that there would be problems in transferring power to his son.

Kim Jong Il's only sister, Kim Kyong Hui and her husband, Chang Song-Thaek, unofficial number two leader in the country are expected to act as guardian of her son and throw their political weight behind it, analysts say.

News sent shockwaves throughout the region, where for many years, tensions run high around the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and aggressive tactics.

South Korea deployed troops and police on emergency alert, and called a meeting of the Council of National Security. President Lee Myung-bak has canceled his schedule, and called an emergency cabinet meeting for 3pm.

Joint Chiefs of Staff said that the increasing control of the border with the U.S. forces in the country, but that no unusual action was noted.

North and South Korea remain technically at war because their three-year Korean conflict ended only a truce in 1953.

The news has shocked South Koreans, and some have expressed fears of renewed conflict.

"I am afraid, will not be war. I thought it was not so in the first place," said the student Song Bo-Na, 22.

United States, which stations 28,500 troops in the south, said he is closely following the developments.

"The president has been notified and we are in close contact with our allies in South Korea and Japan, said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

"We remain committed to stability on the Korean peninsula and to liberty and security of our allies."

Japan, which has no diplomatic relations with North Korea, offered his condolences over the death.

Japanese officials also called for an emergency meeting of security and, minutes after noon on the air Pyongyang, the Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda lifted words and rushed to consult with senior ministers.

Australia stated that it is important that governments, including exercise calm and restraint in North Korea after the death, and urged Pyongyang to cooperate with the international community.

KCNA referring to the statement of the National Committee headed by Jong Un's funeral, said the body of Kim Jong Il would lie in state in the Kumsusan palace where the embalmed body of his father on the display.

He said the funeral would be allowed to visit from December 20 to 27.

After the funeral, another event to mourn the leader will be held on December 29. Mourning shots should be fired, and three minutes of silence would be observed. All trains and ships would sound their horns.

Kim took over after his father and founding president Kim Il Sung died in 1994.

In the mid-to late 1990s, he led the famine that killed hundreds of thousands of his people. Acute shortages of food and continue to UN Children's Fund estimates in one-third of children are stunted from malnutrition.

But Kim still find the resources to continue its nuclear weapons program, which culminated in the trial in October 2006 and May 2009. Country is believed to be stockpiles of plutonium large enough for six to eight weapons.

Within a few months have been diplomatic efforts to resume six-party nuclear disarmament talks that North was abandoned in April 2009.

U.S. Ambassador Robert King held talks in Beijing last week about the possibility of the resumption of U.S. food aid. There was speculation the two sides will meet in Beijing this week for separate talks reviving six-party process.