Ye Yonglie

North Korea founder Kim Il-sung died of heart disease, a new Chinese book claims. Ye Yonglie, who also wrote a biography of Mao Zedong, makes the claim in a book titled "The Real North Korea" which also recounts the final moments of Kim's life.

In 1994, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter visited Pyongyang to defuse the North Korean nuclear standoff and Kim was busy preparing for a summit he promised to hold in Seoul with the South Korean president. At the age of 82, Kim apparently still had a punishing work schedule, working more than 10 hours a day to prepare for the summit and to resolve North Korea's chronic food shortage. His son and heir Kim Jong-il was physically far less resilient and was resting in a provincial town, according to the book.

On July 7, a day before his death, the North Korean leader visited a farm to check up on the summer harvest before arriving at his summer home in Mt. Myohyang, where he collapsed due to acute heart failure after a briefing from officials. A doctor rushed to the scene but the dacha lacked the medical equipment to deal with the emergency, the book says. A helicopter was to take Kim to Ponghwa Hospital a two-hour drive away but crashed into Mt. Myohyang amid heavy winds and rain. A second helicopter took Kim to the hospital, but he was already dead. His heart had stopped beating at 2 a.m.

Ye writes that Kim Jong-il was so wracked with grief at his father's death that a memorial rally had to be postponed from July 17 to July 20.