Timeline -17 years of Kim's rule

(Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has died, North Korean state television reported on Monday. He was 69.

Here is a timeline of his rule:

July 1994 - Kim Il-sung dies of heart attack at age 82, bringing to de-facto power his son Kim Jong-il, in the first communist dynastic succession.

October 1994 - U.S. President Bill Clinton's administration signs an agreement with North Korea to freeze its nuclear programme in exchange for aid.

June 2000 - South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il meet in Pyongyang and produce a pact to reduce tension and hold reunions of families separated by the Korean War.

March 2001 - North Korea indefinitely postpones talks with the South after new U.S. President George W. Bush places policy toward North Korea under review.

January 2002 - In State of the Union address, Bush brands North Korea, Iran and Iraq an "axis of evil." North Korea says the remarks are tantamount to a declaration of war.

December 2002 - North Korea says it plans to restart Yongbyon reactor. By the end of the month, it has disabled the IAEA surveillance devices there and expels the agency's inspectors.

January 2003 - North Korea quits the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

September 2005 - North reaches deal with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and United States on "abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programmes" and returning to the NPT.

October 2006 - North carries out first nuclear test.

February 2007 - North Korea agrees to start shutting its reactor and allow U.N. nuclear inspectors back in exchange for aid.

August 2008 - Kim is thought to have suffered a stroke that keeps him out of the public eye for months.

August 2008 - Pyongyang says it will reverse disablement of Yongbyon facilities.

October 2008 - U.S. says it will take North Korea off state sponsors of terrorism list, following verbal agreement on dismantlement. IAEA soon granted access to key Yongbyon plants.

April 2009 - North Korea launches a multistage rocket. A week later, the U.N. security council condemns North Korea.

-- A day later, North Korea says it will quit six-party nuclear talks and restart Yongbyon. It expels U.N. inspectors.

May 2009 - North Korea says it has conducted a nuclear test.

March 2010 - A South Korean navy corvette sinks, killing 46 sailors aboard. South Korea announces in May that an investigation showed the North had torpedoed the craft.

May 2010 - Kim says he remains committed to the "denuclearisation" of the peninsula, during a visit to China.

August 2010 - Kim visits China, meets President Hu Jintao in the northeastern city of Changchun.

September 2010 - Kim anoints his youngest son Kim Jong-un as successor at a conference of the Workers' Party.

October 2010 - Kim Jong-un attends a military training drill.

May 2011 - Kim Jong-il and China's leaders vow that their alliance "sealed in blood" will pass on to their successors.

August 2011 - Kim, in China, says he is willing to return to nuclear talks. Days before, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev discussed Pyongyang's nuclear programme with Kim in Siberia.

September 2011 - Kim and Kim Jong-un mark the 63rd anniversary of the state's founding and review a military parade.

December 2011 - Kim dies on December 17 and is succeeded two days later by his third son, Kim Jong-un, a "great successor."

(Reporting by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)