China urges others to help keep North Korea stable

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. His son Kim Jong-un, thought to be in his 20s, has been anointed the successor but it is likely power rests with a coterie of senior officials, including his aunt and uncle. The younger Kim, along with top army and government officials, paid respects on Tuesday to his father, whose body was placed in a glass topped bier surrounded by the red "Kimjongilia" flowers named after him, television footage showed.