On 19 December 2011, the North Korean government announced that he had died two days earlier, whereupon his third son, Kim Jong Un, was promoted to a senior position in the ruling WPK and succeeded him. Following Kim's failure to appear at important public events in 2008, foreign observers assumed that Kim had either fallen seriously ill or died. The most common colloquial title given to Kim during his lifetime was 'Dear Leader' to distinguish him from his father Kim Il Sung, the 'Great Leader'. In April 2009, North Korea's constitution was amended to refer to him and his successors as the 'supreme leader of the DPRK'. Kim's rule also saw tentative economic reforms, including the opening of the Kaesong Industrial Park in 2003. Kim strengthened the role of the military by his Songun ('military-first') policies, making the army the central organizer of civil society. While the famine had ended by the late 1990s, food scarcity continued to be a problem throughout his tenure. Kim assumed leadership during a period of catastrophic economic crisis amidst the dissolution of the Soviet Union, on which it was heavily dependent for trade in food and other supplies, which brought a famine.

Kim ruled North Korea as a repressive and totalitarian dictatorship. Kim was the General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), WPK Presidium, Chairman of the National Defence Commission (NDC) of North Korea and the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army (KPA), the fourth-largest standing army in the world. Kim succeeded his father and DPRK founder Kim Il Sung, following the elder Kim's death in 1994.

In the early 1980s, Kim had become the heir apparent for the leadership of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and assumed important posts in the party and army organs. He led North Korea from the 1994 death of his father Kim Il Sung, the first Supreme Leader, until his own death in 2011, when he was succeeded by his son, Kim Jong Un. Kim Jong Il ( / ˌ k ɪ m dʒ ɒ ŋ ˈ ɪ l/ Korean: 김정일 Korean pronunciation: also transcribed as Kim Jong-il and born Yuri Irsenovich Kim 16 February 1941 or 1942 – 17 December 2011) was a North Korean politician who was the second supreme leader of North Korea from 1994 to 2011.

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