i'm nina dos santos at cnn london. >> and i'm pauline chu here in hong kong. you in a couple of hours for the opening bell on wall street.

. >> and i'm pauline chu in hong kong. the top stories. a time of transition as people pay respects in north korea. the world waits to see what shape succession will take. >> the struggle to save europe's single currency continues as an emergency cash drive falls short. >> if you've still got last minute presents to buy, we've got the gift guide for you. >>> in north korea, it's a time of deep mourning. in the rest of the world, it's a time of deep unease. one of the world's most cyclic nations, one with nuclear capabilities is undergoing only the secondhandover the power in 60 years. the future policy direction is hard to guess. the son and anointed successor of kim jong-il looked at his fathers's body. the media outlets are now calling him the great successor. >> despite that, south korea's stock exchange and currency are largely shrugging off fears. the kospi closed up. it shed 3% on monday. there was a real dip as the announcement of kim jong-il's death was made public at noontime local time on monday. you might remember, it fell almos

let's go to pauline chu now. she's following the market reaction. what are the numbers?well, they're all in negative territory, john, and the koskie has recovered a bit. the nikkei down by just under 1%. and the hang seng and the shake hang composite in negative territory. let's look at the time line of the kospi from earlier today. when you look at the time line, you can see that the kospi plummeted right when the news came out that kim jong il had died. then it gained a little bit. right now, it's gaining a little bit as i mentioned so it's gaining some traction here. let's take a look also at the nikkei. now, traders in japan, they were on lunch break when the news came out, and take a look at what happened in the nikkei earlier today. their lunch break was from 11:30 to 12:30 here. as soon as the traders came back, you can see that the nikkei went down quite dramatically, but it's regained since then. then let's take a look at how the korean wan has done against the u.s. dollar. i want to show you what happened when the news came out. you can see that as the news cam

pauline chu, thank you for that. >>> now, kim jong il's death brings a new season of uncertainty foris son kim jong un has been groomed to take over and everyone wonders whether he would be any different. and we put that question to north korean expert han park. >> when a country is under security threat as north koreans have 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 -- still in the same security threat situation, i think we can expect the same thing. under kim jong un or possibly kim jong il era. however, i think kim jong un would very much be obsessed to develop the economy more than anything else. because kim jong il kind of wanted his son to become like china's -- china's dow ping. so first it will be the choice, on the part of kim jong un. if that doesn't work of course, i think it is -- it is highly unlikely that north korea will reform and change and become a liberal democratic system. >> han park speaking to us earlier. breaking news coverage on the death of