North Korean leader Kim Jong Il visited the Paekunsan Combined Foodstuff Factory on Dec. 3, 2010.

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This undated photo, released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on May 8, 2011, shows Kim visiting the Pyongyang Textile Mill.

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The reclusive Kim arrived in Russia on Aug. 20, 2011 for his first visit in nearly a decade, traveling in his armored train.

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Women dressed in traditional Russian costumes welcomed Kim Jong Il at the Novobureisky station in Russia on Aug. 21.

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On the same visit, Kim met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov (far right) at the Sosnovy Bor Military Garrison.

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Former U.S. president Bill Clinton traveled to Pyongyang in August 2009, meeting with Kim to secure a pardon for two U.S. journalists sentenced to prison.

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Kim listens to Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Vladivostok in 2002. South Korea's intelligence chief said at the time that although there were no signs a test was imminent, North Korea was capable of testing a nuclear bomb at any time.

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Kim inspects the cotton farm under the Korean People's Army Unit 1596 at an undisclosed location in North Korea.

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This undated picture, released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Nov. 25, 2009, shows Kim Jong Il visiting a factory in North Pyongan province.

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Kim toasts U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at a dinner in Pyongyang on Oct. 24, 2000. The Albright visit was part of a coordinated strategy involving Washington and its allies, South Korea and Japan, to end the North's isolation and remove the threat of war.

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A painting featuring Kim was on display during the opening of the North Korean state art exhibition "Flowers of Kim Il Sung" in Vienna on May 18, 2010. The 16 portraits of Kim and his father, the founder of North Korea, were being exhibited for the first time abroad, according to museum officials. The pair are the subject of an all-embracing personality cult in North Korea.

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Kim inspects the Wonphyong Taehung Fishery Station in Kumya County, South Hamgyong Province.

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Kim visits the construction site of the Paektusan Songun Youth Power Station.

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A television screen at Seoul Station in South Korea reports the North Korean leader's death. Kim, the second-generation dictator who defied global condemnation to build nuclear weapons while his people starved, died of a heart attack, North Korean state media reported.

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Kim looks out of a car window after his meeting this past summer with Medvedev to talk about energy and food aid

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This portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il is displayed at an entrance of the foreign ministry in Pyongyang, North Korea. In a move ending decades of Cold War hostility, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made an unprecedented visit North Korea in September of 2002 for talks with the Stalinist country's leader.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is greeted by women in traditional costume at the train station in the Siberian city of Omsk, Russia for the first stopover on his train journey to Moscow on August 1, 2001.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il works at his office after being named General Secretary of ruling Workers Party.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, on the center of the second row, poses with members of North Korean Peoples Army Youth Propaganda unit while meeting at an undisclosed place on January 2nd, 1997. Kim made a rare public appearance at an indoor sports stadium to watch a gymnastics display with military and party leaders. Analysts at the time believed that Kim was already firmly in power.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il meets with Korean People's Army personel in September, 1988 after being named as the General Secretary of North Korean ruling Workers' Party.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, bottom left, poses with his first-born son Kim Jong Nam, bottom right, in this 1981 family photo in Pyongyang, North Korea. Kim Jong Nam was detained in Japan on May 1, 2001 at the new Tokyo International Airport in Narita for attempting to enter Japan under a false passport.

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North Korea's Kim Jong-Il, on the right, and his father Kim Il-Sung, on the left, who died in July 1994, attend an evening party to celebrate the 6th Korean Worker's Party convention. Kim took power from his father Kim Il-Sung in 1994 in the communist world's only dynastic handover, and perpetuated the family's all-pervasive personality cult in the secretive Stalinist state.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, on the right, and South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung, on the left, joining hands before signing a written agreement during a historic summit between the two countries in the North Korean capital city of Pyongyang. Former South Korean president Kim Dae-Jung died on August 18, 2009 at the age of 83.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin, on the right, shakes hands with the leader of Democratic People's Republic of Korea Kim Jong Il, on the left, during their official meeting in Pyongyang, on July 19th, 2000. Russian President Putin said after talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong II during a two-day visit in Pyongyang that North Korea vowed to halt its missile development program in exchange for access to space rocket technology.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Il inspects the newly built gasification process at the Namhung Youth Chemical Complex in South Pyongan province.

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Kim Jong Il, leader of North Korea, on the right, looks towards his son Kim Jong Un, on the left, during a military parade commemorating the 65th anniversary of founding of the Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Sunday, Oct. 10, 2010. North Korean heir apparent Kim Jong Un stood at his father's side as they reviewed troops, tanks and missiles in a Pyongyang military parade.

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