<p>Kim Jong Il, North Korea's mercurial and enigmatic leader, has died. He was 69.</p><p><b>The news came as North Korea prepared for a hereditary succession. Kim Jong Il inherited power after his father, revered North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, died in 1994.</b></p><p>In September 2010, Kim Jong Il unveiled his third son, the twenty-something Kim Jong Un, as his successor, putting him in high-ranking posts.</p><p><b>(Pictures by Reuters)</b></p>