SEOUL (Reuters) - China, which may have received advanced notice of the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, has moved swiftly to call on the United States and other countries to help maintain stability in the reclusive state, officials and news reports said.
North Korea is in mourning since it announced Kim's demise on Monday, two days after the 69-year-old iron ruler died of a heart attack, plunging the region into uncertainty over its stability and who had control over its nuclear weapons program.
The official KCNA news agency said at least five million people one-fifth of the population of the impoverished state had paid condolences at statues and portraits of the leader and his father, North Korea's founder Kim Il-Sung.
"These places turned into a veritable sea of mourners who bitterly wept, looking up to portraits of smiling Kim Jong-il," it said.
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