Kim Il Sung, who built a reclusive Stalinist-style dictatorship in four decades as ruler of North Korea, died Friday.
The development threw into doubt the future of North Korea's nuclear standoff with the United Nations. It also raised questions about whether North Korea would manage a smooth succession to a new leader or face internal chaos.Kim, who waged the Korean War against the South and built himself a godlike personality cult, died of a heart attack, the North Korean government said Saturday. He was 82.
First word of the death came from South Korean television. With a shaking voice, an announcer on South Korea's KBS television said Kim died Friday.
Later, South Korean television played a tape of the Northern broadcast, delivered in an almost sobbing voice. "Our great leader has died of a sudden disease!" it said.
The broadcast said he suffered "problems in the heart arteries," listing a myocardial infarction as the cause of death.
About an hour after the initial announcement, the North's official news agency, KCNA, confirmed the death. It cited a "sudden attack of illness."
"Our respected fatherly leader . . . departed from us, to our greatest sorrow," it said.
South Korean President Kim Young-sam received the news a little after noon Saturday. He immediately summoned his defense minister and ordered him to "prepare for all contingencies."
The armed forces have been put on alert, the television reported. Kim was to shortly convene an emergency Cabinet meeting, it said.
In Washington, a spokesman said the White House was aware of the report and was attempting to get more details.
"The White House is monitoring it, and we're trying to pursue more information,"said spokesman Jeff Eller.
Kim Il Sung ruled North Korea with an iron hand for four decades.
He is the only leader the hard-line communist country has ever known since its founding in 1948, three years after the Korean peninsula was liberated from Japan's colonial rule.
Kim, referred to as the "Great Leader," was the head of a powerful personality cult, and was revered as a godlike figure.
Kim's heir apparent is his first son, Kim Jong Il, 52. If the younger Kim succeeds his father, it would mark the first lineal transfer of power in the communist world.
But observers have long warned that the elder Kim's death could set off a power struggle and deteriorate into chaos.
The announcement of Kim's death came only hours after the start of U.S.-Korean talks in Geneva on resolving the long-running nuclear crisis, and two weeks before what was to have been the first-ever meeting of North and South's presidents.
Last month, Kim Il Sung met with former President Jimmy Carter, and in a major break in the nuclear dispute, pledged to freeze the North's nuclear program pending talks.
The North maintains its nuclear program is peaceful, but it is suspected of trying to build nuclear arms. The 16-month-old nuclear dispute had led the United States to seek sanctions against the North, but that was put on hold pending the talks.
Talks recently resumed with the United States had been delayed repeatedly because North Korea refused to allow unimpeded U.N. inspections of its nuclear facilities.
In a sign that tensions were easing, North and South Korea had agreed to hold an unprecedented meeting between their presidents for July 25-27.