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  North Korea began the funeral of late leader Kim Jong-Il. Russian media reported from a snowy Pyongyang. (AFP)
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  The North Korean official media carried fulsome tributes to Kim, but did not say whether the ceremony - expected to bring hundreds of thousands into the streets - had started. (AFP)
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  The grieving communist state bolstered the status of his son, Kim Jong-Un, as "the great successor". (AP)
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  The media has given no indication when the funeral would begin. Foreign delegations were not invited. (AP)
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  The hearse passes during a funeral procession of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il. (AP)
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  North Korean soldiers mourn during the funeral ceremony for the late leader Kim Jong-Il in Pyongyang. (AFP)
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  According to the North Korean news agency the streets of the showpiece capital Pyongyang and all other towns and cities were packed with citizens and soldiers sweeping away snow. (AP)
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  North Korean military personnel cry during a funeral for late North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il. (AP)
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  North Korean military personnel stand in lines as they bow during a funeral procession for late North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il. (AP)
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  Analysts expect the funeral will be largely a re-run of the 1994 obsequies for Kim Jong-Il's father and founding president Kim Il-Sung - a ceremony designed to pay homage to the late leader and build loyalty to his dynastic successor. (AFP)
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  (AP)
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  Official media has declared Kim Jong-Un the "great successor", supreme military commander and Central Committee chief of the ruling Workers' Party, although he has not yet been formally appointed to the party and military posts. (AP)
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  (AP)
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  A huge portrait of late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is carried in the snow during his funeral procession in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP)
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  Mourning will officially end with a nationwide memorial service including a three-minute silence at noon. Trains, ships and other vehicles will sound their hooters. (AFP)
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  Before the funeral the body of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il first laid in state in a glass coffin at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang. (AFP)
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  Kim Jong-Il, who presided over a devastating famine in the 90's, still found funds to build missiles and nuclear weapons during his 17 years in power. (AFP)
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  North Korean women cry after learning of the death of their leader Kim Jong-Il. (AP)
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  Few national leaders die these days with no one outside their country knowing about it. For more than 48 hours. Not even a mention on Twitter. (AP)
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  Kim's death appears to have been kept a close secret within a tight coterie at the top of the reclusive North. (AP)
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  There was no stream of Facebook or Twitter posts from the internet-deprived country to spread the news as with the "Arab Spring". (AP)
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  (AP)
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  North Koreans gather to mourn the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang. (AP)
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  A North Korean woman cries after learning death of the country's leader Kim Jong-Il. (AP)
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  North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has died aged 69 of a heart attack. (Dmitry Astakhov, AFP)
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  North Korea, the impoverished but nuclear-armed nation has been plunged into uncertainty amid a second dynastic succession. (AFP)
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  The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the leader "passed away from a great mental and physical strain", while on a train for one of his "field guidance" tours. (Andy Wong, AP)
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  Kim Jong-il on his father's lap, Kim Il-sung, and his mother, Kim Jong-suk in 1945. (AP)
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  According to Soviet records Kim Jong-Il was born in a Siberian village in 1941. But official Korean biographies state that he was born in a secret military camp in north Korea on February 16 1942. (AP)
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  Then North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung (R) with his son and chosen successor Kim Jong-Il. (AFP)
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  The KCNA urged people to follow his youngest son and heir apparent Kim Jong-Un, who is aged in his late 20s and until last year had no public profile. (AFP)
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  North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il sitting with his son, Jong-Nam (sitting-R), Kim's sister-in-law Sung Hye-Rang (L-top), Sung's daughter Lee Nam-Ok (C-top) and son Lee Il-Nam (R-top). (AFP)
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  The party politburo's number two man and North Korea's heir-apparent chatting with his father President Kim Il-Sung. (AFP)
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  North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il inspecting cucumbers harvested inside the 770th army base near Nyon Won power plant in Pyonan-Namdo. (AFP)
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  Kim Jong-Il (R) and his father Kim Il-Sung (L), who died in July 1994, attending an evening party to celebrate the 6th Korean Worker's Party convention. (AFP)
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  The Great Teacher of Journalists, a book on Kim Jong-Il published by the state in 1983. (Yun Jai-hyoung, AP)
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  Since a congress in 1980 Kim Jong-Il was confirmed as successor to his own father and founding president Kim Il-Sung. (AFP)
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  (AFP)
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  Kim Jong-il meets military personnel in 1988. (AFP)
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  A portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il displayed at an entrance of the foreign ministry in Pyongyang. (AFP)
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  North Korea announced in 2010 the biggest national meeting for three decades. Paving the way for a likely dynastic power transfer from Kim Jong-Il to his youngest son, Kim Jong-Un. (AFP)
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  Kim Jong-Il (R) sitting with visiting Lao President Choummaly Sayasone (C) and Kim's likely succeessor, his son Kim Jong-Un (L) during their meeting in Pyongyang. (AFP)
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  The national meeting marking the 50th anniversary of new agricultural guidance system being underway under the portraits of North Korean leaders Kim Il-Sung (L) and Kim Jong-Il (R). (AFP)
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  North and South Korea have remained technically at war since their three-year Korean conflict ended only in an armistice in 1953. (AFP)
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  South Korea ordered its military on alert but urged people to stay calm following the announcement of the death of Kim Jong-Il.(AFP)
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  Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung raise their arms together before signing a joint declaration at a three-day summit in Pyongyang in 2000. (AP)
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  North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il (front row-C) being photographed with the participants in a meeting of active outpost soldiers at the plaza of the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang. (AFP)
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  Kim Jong-Il suffered a stroke in August 2008 which left him with impaired movement in his left arm and leg. (AFP)
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  The North Korean leader's funeral will be held later in December in Pyongyang but no foreign delegations will be invited. (AFP)
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  (Dmitry Astakhov, AP)

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