>> he was known for his love of fine wines, at odds in a country where food shortages were common. a dear leader is said to have indulged in his appetite for the finer things, his people were literally starving to death. the collapse of the soviet union hit north korea hard, suddenly ending guaranteed trade deals, and then devastating floods compounded the famine. estimates vary, but the regime itself say more than a million perished, some say it was more than ten times that figure. but in the capitol, a successful

state was maintained, a subway, proof the dear leader would say of the progress under his and his father's leadership. kim jong-il was well-known as a film buff. his personal video library was said to include 20,000 titles with rambo and friday the 13th topping the leader's favorite flicks. in 2000, there appeared to be a thorn in relations, the first-ever meeting with kim jong-il. the south seemed to be bearing fruit. but kim jong-il pressed ahead with his nuclear weapons program. it was labeled the axis of evil in 2002. in 2006, the north conducted a

nuclear test and test-fired missiles. it added extra urgency to the party talks designed to deal with north korea's nuclear program. a breakthrough came in 2007 when kim jong-il finally agreed to disable the nuclear reactor in return for fuel and better relations with the u.s., but despite dramatically blowing up the cooling tower, north korea seemed to back track, the deal seemed to be in jeopardy. the capture of two u.s. journalists on the north korean border sparked another crisis in 2009. it ended when former president bill clinton flew in and successfully negotiated their release, prompting hopes there would be further engagement. observers say kim jong-il will be remembered as a nearly impossible man to bargain with, stubborn and fickle in easy measure, a man who kept people in a totalitarian nightmare, in

one of the most reclusive regimes in the world. dan rivers, cnn. >> now the country is looking to its next leader, kim jong un, believed to be 27 or 28 years old. he is the son of the elder kim's late third wife. because of his age and lack of experience, he is said to be a political novice. last year, he was promoted to a four star general. until then, there were few known fphotos of him. he's said to share the same type of personality described as ambitious and take no prisoners type. let's get analysis from a professor of international relations. he joins me now live in seoul, south korea. professor. thank you very much for joining us here on cnn. what is the reaction in seoul to the death of kim jong-il, are people there stunned or were they expecting this

announcement? >> i think most people here in south korea, including our government expected the passing of kim jong-il fairly soon, but we were not sure when he would pass away, so south koreans are taking this in stride. the army, the government, are all on a state of high alert, but business as usual is the keyword in seoul today. >> south korean military raised their security alert. what prompted that move? >> this is part of the ongoing process that we have put into place for the last several years. the south korean government and armed forces want to make sure they do not take anything else, for example, doing another strike against our forces in the yellow sea. this is an entirely precautionary pressure, so we're watching any early warning signals that might come from jong un, but so far nothing unusual is happening across the

dmz. >> we're also monitoring the stock markets and it's already closed, shares traded lower upon news of the death of kim jong-il, and quite interestingly, we saw stocks in south korean defense companies rally quite strongly, so what is the mentality behind that? >> you know, every time there's a major north korean crisis such as the detonation of a nuclear weapon, back several years ago, the passing of kim il-sung, the south korean stock market will, of course, react, but of the longer term, the market basically readjusts itself because stability and security's name of the game, so as long as you have 27,000 u.s. forces stationed here in south korea, i think most koreans feel the economy will be back on track. >> stability and security is the name of the game. is that being reiterated by the blue house? what is the political reaction to the news? >> yes, as soon as the president

heard of the news of kim jong-il's passing this morning, he basically convened an emergency meeting in the blue house, our presidential office, at 3:00 p.m. this afternoon, as we speak, the president's meeting with his cabinet in emergency session but also wanted to tell the people a crisis erupt but at the same time business as usual the economy will be on track, so he's sending two key messages to the korean people and to the outside world. >> japan, upon hearing the news of the death of kim jong-il, has said its condolences. south korea has no decision to make in terms of sending condolences. why is that, should we read anything into this? >> well, this is a political issue. as you recall in 1994, the then-government, also a conservative government, did not accede to the opposition's

demand that the opposition send delegation to pay respects, so after kim jong-il's passing, i'm sure parts of the opposition party will want to send their own delegates if they want to accept them. although the official announcement so far said throughout the morning period the north korean government will not accept foreign dignitaries. this has been a politically sensitive issue in south korea. i don't think official delegations will be sent. >> in 2010 we saw the sinking of the south korean warship. that brought relations from the north and south to a new low. what is the status of relations now and how will it change, if it does change, with a north korea under kim jong un? >> so far it's been frozen, two major crises in 2010 and proceeding that a south korean tourist was killed, so basically the south koreans are given

minimal humanitarian assistance but no breakthrough. with the death of kim jong-il, i doubt the 28, 29-year-old son of kim jong-il has at wherewithal to engage with the south, so for the time being, there will be shadow boxing but no real breakthrough. >> here on cnn with this breaking news story. >> thank you. >> japan called an emergency national security meeting on news of kim jong-il's death. a statement by the chief government spokesman has been issued offering condolences. quote, we express our condolences on the news of passing kim jong-il, the chairman of the national defense committee of north korea. we wish the sudden news would not affect north korea negatively. china's north korea's closest

ally, of course, and here's the scene as the flag was lower in beijing and people watched as the flag was raised and lowered again in half staff to mourning of kim jong-il. there live in beijing monitoring reaction around the region. he joins us now. stan, we're waiting for official word, reaction, from beijing. >> reporter: yeah, we are, but china has an enormous stake in this. as you pointed out, the key relationship between north korea and china, north korea in the past has been described as a client state of china. we know china has sent thousands, tens of thousands of volunteers across the border to fight with north korea in the korean war. china has a huge stake in the stability of that country. north korea relies on china for its economy and for the vast

bulk of its fuel supplies. during the 1990s north korea went through an economic downturn, the collapse of other communist regimes around the world, most notably the soviet union left korea very isolated and that relationship with china has very much come to the full. in recent times, kim jong-il brought his son to china to try to introduce him to the leadership if you'd like to get a stamp of approval for the leadership. the death comes as no real surprise. as we know, he's been in ill health for some time. china would rehearse numerous contingencies, but right now it's the unexpected, questions we can't answer right now, how much authority will the young kim jong-il have, what will the reaction of ordinary north koreans be? and china, of course, watching that border area for any sign that people are trying to make a

run across into china. christie? >> and let's expand on that a little bit. in the last few hours we've learned in north korea they called kim jong un the great successor. does china factor in there is a chance there will be instability and influx of refugees across the border, really, how likely is that? >> reporter: well, these are the nightmare scenarios, people can always conjecture about the potential implosion of north korea, kim jong-il was not able to establish himself, rogue elements of the military, reaction from the north korean people themselves, but all of that moves into the area of conjecture. right now, as we've seen, kim jong-il has been grooming his son for a role in the leadership to succeed him. we saw last year he was appoi appointed a four star general. many people, in fact, were looking at the attack on the

island, i was able to report on, late last year, as really the work of kim jong un in an attempt to establish his military kcredentials. the wife is also a senior figure in the military there and some have also speculated he will be the power behind the throne, if you like, perhaps play more of a direct leadership role while kim jong un is able to establish himself. when we talk about north korea, it's so closed off and difficult to read, so opaque, one constant, of course, has been the presence of kim jong-il, regardless of how caricatured he was as being an eccentric leader, he was the constant. he was the figure there that the world had come to know, someone that, despite the image, was seen as a very shrewd operator, someone who could come to talks

like the six party talk and be able to work through the negotiations to get what he wants, to back track, play one hand, play one country off against another. his demise, now, leads that vacant space, the question is, can kim jong un fill that space. >> joining us live from beijing, thank you. in washington, a u.s. official says the death of kim jong-il brings change and uncertainty to north korea and an insecure north korea can be a more dangerous korea. a statement saying this, we are closely monitoring reports kim jong-il is dead. the president has been notified, and we are in close touch with allies in south korea and japan. we remain committed to stability on the korean peninsula and freedom and security of our allies. you're watching cnn. back with more breaking news coverage of kim jong-il after the break.

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fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds. nothing works faster. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums welcome back, let's recap our top story. it is an end of an era in north korea. kim jong-il has died. our state tv said the 69-year-old leader, he suffered a heart attack saturday while on a train trip. also said a funeral will be held december the 28 #th.

kim jong-il had been in power since 1994 when his father died of a heart attack. earlier, peter beck gave us his take on how ordinary people in north korea may be reacting to the news of the dear leader's demise. >> it's fair to say the outpouring of emotion we saw with the official announcement is unlikely to be followed by the average north korean. his 17 years in power he did not do much to distinguish himself other than making north korea nuclear power and that doesn't put food on the table. as far as the average north korean is concerned, they are not going to be shedding too many tears for him. >> let's talk about the human rights legacy of kim jong-il and what happened under his leadership, the famines, human rights crises, explain. >> that's right. he took over, his father died at the outset of the most serious famine that north korea has experienced in really in its

modern times. we don't know even now how many people died, hundreds of thousands at least and think up to 200,000 a, so he's maintaine an iron grip over the last 17 years. what's interesting, when his father passed away, he didn't appear in public for several years, but he was in seclusion for the first several years. >> peter beck speaking to me earlier. after the break, check on market reaction to the news. you're watching cnn. back after the break. for a limited time, passages malibu

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all right, welcome back, let's check how markets across the region reacted to news of kim jong il's death. >> all the markets in the region were down throughout the day, and at one point down by 5%, but it regained some ground and ended the session, brought down by 3.4%. let's take a look at the timeline and what happened today with the kospi. at 12:00, the news of kim jong il's death started to trickle out and you can see the kospi took a pretty dramatic plunge there. let's see how the korean did.

today it was trading around 1157 to the u.s. dollar, then at the time the news came out, the graph goes up, but that means there was a sell off and it weakened there and it did hit about 1179 to the u.s. dollar there, and as a result of the news that came out of north korea, the u.s. dollar also strengthened. investors looking to the u.s. dollar as a safe haven. let's take a look at the major u.s. currencies there. we saw the dollar strengthening against the yen there and also against the euro. it was trading at $1.54 against the british pound, but keep in mind the euro has been weak for quite some time because of the debt crisis, but still today it was trading around 128, 129 to the euro, so the euro has gained a little bit of ground. let's take a look at some stocks, we saw some military stocks gaining ground in south korea. let's take a look at some of the those stocks, speco was up by

almost 15%. same story there for victek company. these companies make military equipment. huneed technologies was also up 15%. there's a need how far the stocks can trade up and 15% was that limit, so that's what we had there. i think that is very telling of this general concern in the markets of uncertainty, what will happen now that kim jong il has passed away, what kind of stability or instability will there be in the region, christie? >> what do the futures look like for europe? >> right now the futures are down because of the news of kim jong il's passing, but on top of that is the bigger news of the debt worries, just last week, future ratings said it might consider down grading six countries in the euro zone and also moody's has down graded the credit rating for belgium, so

the euro zone debt crisis very much at the forefront as well. >> thank you very much indeed for that. more coverage on the reaction of the death of kim jong il after the break. daddy, come in the water!

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i'm shocked. i wonder what is going to happen. >> he was the only one to have power in north korea. his death will have a huge impact. >> i hope the north will become more democratic. i don't want chaos. >> reaction to the death of north korean leader kim jong il. the japanese government held

emergency meetings on monday soon after the reports of mr. kim's death. more now from the japanese government. a spokesman for the japanese prime minister joins us now live from cnn tokyo. tell us, what has come out of these emergency meetings in tokyo in response to the death of the north korean leader? >> well, this report of the passage of mr. kim jong il, prime minister noda instructed to carry out of following three points, information gathering, sharing information with the countries concerned, and to prepare ourselves for any contingency. >> now, south korea, they have raised their security alert upon hearing the news. have you done the same in japan? >> there was various discussion at the emergency national security council meeting.

we have not come up with any new changes after the report has been circulating. >> okay, what are the implications of the death of kim jong il on the six party process and attempts to denuclearize the korean peninsula? >> well, japan is a member of six party talks, so we have been trying to achieve denuclearizing and other relevant issues, and we are hoping we'll be able to make progress, and we will have to closely watch what is going to be the implications for -- as a result of passage of mr. kim jong il. >> seems you're closely watching, monitoring, japanese government being very cautious at this moment, or that's what

you're conveying as spokesperson. i want to ask you about the japanese abduction issue. does the death of kim jong il awaken hope in japan that this issue will be resolved? >> well, this issue of abduction is something that we attach so much importance to, and in solving this problem, we are hoping in the future japan and north korea relations will be normalized, that we have to wait and see what is going to be the reaction from north korea after this death of mr. kim jong il. >> what is tokyo's view of the great successor, kim jong un? >> well, we know that there has been reports of the successor issues, but we have to really watch how, you know, this

transition to a new regime will emerge, and we are contacting with our allies, the united states, south korea, and china, to observe very carefully what's happening in north korea. >> okay, spokesman for the japanese prime minister joining us live from cnn tokyo. thank you very much for making yourself available right here on cnn. we are also tracking reaction from other nations. south korea has raised its national alert to the second of three levels, and the president asked that the people of south korea concentrate on economic activities and remain calm. mr. lee also spoke with u.s. president barack obama, who reaffirmed america's commitment to seoul. south korea has much to fear if north korea becomes unstable. the two share tents and border, they are still technically at war. now, how is the u.s. state

department dealing with this news? well, our senior state department producer spoke to us earlier from washington. >> i think it happened a little bit sooner than they thought it would, and they really don't know who is running the show. as we've been saying, is kim jong un making decisions at this point or are the so-called regi regions, is the military making decisions? i think there's going to be a real period of uncertainty for the united states. they've seen some progress in engagement with the north over the last six months or so. i think they are going to put on the brakes a little bit, going to have to very carefully calibrate the messages over the next 24 to 48 hours. are they going to offer condolences, are they going to anoint, so to speak, the

so-called new leader that the -- that we all expect to be, it hasn't been announced yet. i think the u.s. is really going to tread very carefully. certainly not some wholesale engagement, overnight the u.s. isn't going to embrace this young, untested leader, but i don't think they want to close the door to what we've been talking about all evening that this could be an opportunity, could be more benevolent leader than his father, it's certainly possible, but also could be an unpredictable leader, and he's untested. obviously, the north koreans are going to want to betray him as in command, could that mean some provocative behavior towards the south? they really don't know. i think they are going to be watching and waiting as they closely, closely coordinate with south korea. >> lisa there with the word from washington. there have been fears about chaos in the wake of kim's

death, and it has been reported extensively from the region, he told us on the recent visit she was struck by the stability of the regime. >> i had not been there in six years and i went back in august. i was struck by the sense of political stability across the board, the diplomats, aide workers, people i spoke with, seemed very convinced that the succession was on track, there was not a lot of internal discord about it. moreover, sort of inklings towards movement of opening up a little bit. north korea has now a half million people using cell phones with an internal cell phone system that was set up by an egyptian company. there are more private restaurants than i had seen before. there was even the first joint venture pizza parlor. they were moving ahead with

economic zones with the chinese. while i was there, kim jong il went to russia and talked with vladimir putin about north korea and russia and south korea jointly setting up a gas pipeline to send gas through north korea to south korea, and at the same time, north korea's prime minister was in washington meeting with the united states, so i came away not with the sense the north koreans were embracing chinese-style market reforms, but that the focus was on securing a more tranquil external atmosphere and trying to crank up the economy, and that fits into the critical importance of the year 2012 in the north korean calendar. the north koreans call it dutcha 100, and april of 2012 is his 100th birthday, and the north korean official mantra has been the country should be a powerful and prosperous country, and the

powerful they've got because they've got nukes, so the emphasis was on the prosperous, so you had these indications of focusing on the economy, so i actually came away with a sense that it was a little bit more relaxed and a little bit more open to being open than it had been before, and it's very hard to interpret what that means, and it may well be in this period of national tragedy and crisis that the north koreans will tighten things up again, which is a natural response, but there were these very interesting vibes that were significantly different from the conventional picture of north korea that a lot of people have. >> fascinating insight from north korean watcher there. you're watching cnn with our continuing breaking news coverage of the death of kim jong il. we'll have more after the break.

welcome to our breaking news coverage. north korean leader kim jong il is dead. a state-run news agency, kcna says the 69-year-old dear leader died of a heart attack while on a train trip on saturday. his youngest son, kim jong un is already being referred to as the great successor. kim jong il took control in 1994 when his father, called great leader, died of a heart attack. funeral is planned for december 28th. journalist and documentary film maker has spent several weeks filming north korean refugees as they escaped through china, and earlier i spoke with her about the possibility instability could lead to a major influx of refugees into china.

>> part of the reason why they have such trouble escaping through china is there is a bounty price placed on their head by chinese government, so citizens and policemen are in some cases awarded several hundred dollars for turning in refugees and china has stepped up security and succeeded in stemming the flow of refugees and the concern for china is trying to stabilize that situation and trying to prevent any massive influx of north koreans across the border. >> have you been able to contact those you interviewed for your documentary film, the north korean defectors, to gauge their thoughts and reaction to the death of kim jong il? >> i have spoken with the missionaries this morning who helped them escape, and they said the refugees in general have not spoken to the specific refugees i followed, one is still in hiding in bangkok while applying for asylum to the

united states, but the two that made it to seoul, they were sold into sexual slavery in china, they have returned to prostitution and i lost touch with them, but the missionaries say many refugees are reluctant to speak out or have an opinion on this because even after they have escaped to south korea, they are scared for the safetity of their family members and will be reluctant to say anything negative about the regime, but i think they hope desperately north korea will change to the extent people have food to eat, families are not dying of starvation, people do not face public executions for watching banned television shows, these are all experiences the refugees described to me. >> i want to hear more about that, just the reasons why they risk their lives to leave the country, what kind of conditions they were facing that forced them to make this harrowing

journey from north korea to china and to their ultimate destination. >> sure, two i interviewed were teenagers, one was a 19-year-old girl sold into sexual slavery in china and went across the border for a chance at a better life in china so she could feed her family. her mom was unable to get out of bed because she didn't have enough food to eat. her parents were incredibly sick and all she wanted to do was feed her family. that was her only goal and still her goal

a small room with maybe 80 people to a room. they had to do back-breaking work and hard labor. these were young women, one was 19. the conditions were unimaginable and the third refugee i interviewed is a 16-year-old boy. his family was not dying of starvation but they basically only had potatoes to eat and a family would be considered quite wealthy if they could afford a bowl of rice. ♪ [ male announcer ] they've been tested, built and driven like no other. and now they're being offered like no other. come to the winter event and get an exceptional offer on the mercedes-benz of your dreams. it's our way of showing a little holiday spirit. but hurry -- the offer ends january 3rd. ♪

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>> incredible access and a fascinating glimpse earlier today as north koreans react to the news of the death of kim jong il. kim jong il's death brings a new season of uncertainty for the long struggling communist country. his own kim jong un has been groomed to take over. we wonder if he'll be any different and put that question. >> when a country is under a security threat, as north korea

has felt at least subjectively and objectively as well, then human rights and imprisonment and much oppressive policy is expected, so as long as north korea is still in the same security threat situation, and i think we can expect the same thing under kim jong un, however, i think kim jong un would very much be faster to develop the economy more than anything else, because kim jong il kind of wanted his son to become like china's -- china's

ping so the economic situation is going to be, first the option of foreign policy priority on the part of kim jong un. if that doesn't work, of course, i think it is highly unlikely that north korea will reform and change and become a liberal democratic system. >> han park speaking to us earlier. we leave you now with an inside look at the north korean capitol. cnn's wolfe blitzer toured last year. >> take for example the subway system, it takes forever to get to the underground station. i never saw such longesq escalators. so long it could and does double

as an underground bunker. it's deep underground, you saw how long it takes to get through, we're really, really deep underground. patriotic pictures all over the place. as we're speaking right now, also very patriotic music going on. it's the nation of north korea. a lot of patriotism, a lot of propaganda music, and a lot of propaganda pictures all the time. new mexico governor bill richardson's senior adviser has been to north korea 40 times, going back to 1990. >> we're here on a subway train and about to take off. we'll see where it goes. i have no idea where it goes. so far, so good. what do you think about it so far? >> reminds me of an underground bomb shelter. >> that's what i thought. >> it's a very colorful station with all the paintings and the color and it's very crowded

midday, a lot of people moving forward and moving backwards. >> do people pay for these? >> yeah. >> how do they? how much is it in u.s.? >> very little, about 100 to $1. >> so five cents, a nickel. most people use passes. >> so that's $1. >> just a dollar, very cheap. >> for a dollar they can ride for six months? >> as much as they want. >> pretty good deal. we're moving, pretty smooth. but sometimes it goes dark, electricity shortages are always a problem in north korea. we went to this high school where students were so cold you could see their breath. the rooms were not well-lit. here we are, this is kim jong il square, it's really huge, magnificent, and they often have

events here, which is totally understandable. these are all government buildings over here, and this is a magnificent palace in front of me over here if you want to just flip over, you can see the foreign ministry and you see this marvelous structure over here. this is a brisk, cold day on this friday here, but it's nice. there's not a whole lot of traffic here. it's icy, streets are icy, it's snowy, see a will the of people shoveling. there you see the hammer and sickle of this communist government. you see lennon, marks, manifestations of the communist philosophy. then you see a lot of young people, and some not so young, shoveling snow, which is totally understandable, given what's going on, but it's brisk, it's lovely, it's a nice day here in

pyongyang. we drove all over, saw lots and lots of buildings. some looked impressive from afar, but i couldn't help but wonder if they were just for show. were there really people living inside? i couldn't get access to find out. we also went to the national library, where they have lots of less than state of the art computers, also have a computer room where folks could listen to their favorites. i was surprised by some of them. who would have thought, governor, we're here at a library in north korea, and kenny rogers. how are you? i had some fun when i saw the north korean girls national ice hockey team jogging outside the national ice rink. we're running, we're running. everybody is looking good. i couldn't help but join them

with my hand-held camera shooting away. wolf blitzer, cnn, north korea. >> our breaking news coverage on the death of north korean leader kim jong il continues in a moment. stay with us. [ indistinct talking on radio ]

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