he stepped into power following the death of his father, kim il-sung who founded the reclusive state in 1948. his funeral will be held on december 28th, a day before a period of official mourning comes to an end. and this is how the news of his death was reported on television in north korea. plenty of emotion on display there. that s hardly surprising considering the cult of personality fostered by the deceased dictator and his followers. whatever you might think of kim jong-il, there was no denying he was an out of the ordinary head of state. let s take a look at the man and his life with dan rivers. reporter: kim jong-il was a diminutive stature and characteristic hair were parroted by some of in the west. for the citizens of the democratic peoples republic of korea, kim was the embodiment of this reclusive state, feared, loved, worshipped, his cult of personality was deeply entrenched. his father was kim il-sung who founded north korea with soviet backing after world
suggested that china has become frustrated with north korea. one of the diplomats characterizing poyongyang as a spoiled child. president obama will welcome the chinese president next week for a visit. is it a talk about north korea? mike chinoy joining us on the phone from hong kong. what do you think the administration is hoping to gain from the visit with the chinese leader, mike? kyra, u.s.-china relations gone through a rough patch in the last year or so. tensions on a whole host of issues. usual longstanding problems of trade and american complaints about the value of china s currency. but also, bigger strategic questions the united states seen china throwing its weight around in the region and being unhelpful on important issues that the u.s. worries about,
explain it all to us. peter fonda discovers a dead body on east hollywood. police say he was driving when he saw a body slumped over inside a car and called 911. i used to be a leo. now a cancer? some constellation experts say there are now 13 zodiak signs instead of 12. we are debating the astrological controversy this morning. in the next hour, secretary of state hillary clinton will deliver remarks at the state department and talk about the future of u.s.-china relations but how do americans characterize that relationship? you may remember this ad just before the midterm elections. [ speaking foreign language ] okay. it was produced by a group troubled by the administration s economic policies but the boogieman, the threat in the ad, was china. there are some in the u.s. who find that threat very real. don t buy china. u.s. made. millions of jobs outsourced to communist china. is there anybody here to blame for that? how do you feel about that? are you sunrised a
looking for an excuse to respond militarily to north korea, because they didn t do so in the previous two episodes, and they want to look tough, and once that happens, the north will unquestionably respond and then you get into this very dangerous cycle of escalation, and the vice chairman of the u.s. joint chiefs of staff said a few days ago under those circumstances, it may not be possible to control where the escalation goes and with 28,000 american troops in south korea, the u.s. committed to defend south korea under a security treaty that goes back to the days of the korean war, the potential is if this isn t controlled, if it gets out of control, you could see a very serious cycle of escalation in which the u.s. would inevitably be involved. so there are grave dangers for the united states if this goes in the dangerous direction that it may very well. mike, let s talk more about that, i want to remind you when i introduced you, said you had
nothing is routine. the north isn t going to take it. the north korean army has publicly and in a statement carried by the north korean news agency warned of a very strong response if the south goes ahead. i wouldn t discount those warnings, so we re at a dangerous moment. all of this, mike, is to look tough, is that why all of this is happening? i m sorry? all of this is happening to look tough. i want our slviewers to understd why this is taking place now. it s very complicated. the short version of it is that in 2008, president lee myung-bak of south korea took office and discarded the policy of engaging north korea, that his two predecessors had followed and instead got tough on pyongyang. that started a cycle of escalating tension which culminated in these military exercises so you have the two koreas in a sense jostling to look tough and north korea is now undergoing a very delicate succession, the north korean