South Korea yesterday accepted North Korea’s request to send a delegation to pay respects to late former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung,
North Korea’s Kim Jong-il sent a rare condolence message on Wednesday for Kim Dae-jung, whom he met in a historic 2000 summit in Pyongyang that spawned a flurry of reconciliation projects on the divided peninsula.
North Korea’s state media later said Kim Jong-il planned to send a condolence delegation to Seoul today and tomorrow. The state funeral for Kim Dae-jung, who died on Tuesday at age 85, is scheduled for Sunday at the National Assembly.
PHOTO: AP
The offer was the latest in a series of gestures of conciliation made by North Korea in the past week, with its government releasing a detained South Korean worker and announcing it would allow some stalled cross-border projects to resume.
Yesterday, Chun Hae-sung, a spokesman for Seoul’s Unification Ministry, said it decided to allow the trip “in consideration of South-North Korean ties” and the wishes of Kim Dae-jung’s family.
North Korea has only dispatched a condolence delegation for one other South Korean, Chung Ju-yung, the founder of the Hyundai Group, which funded the first inter-Korean joint projects. Chung died in 2001.
Chun, however, said South Korean officials had no immediate plans to meet the North Korean delegation, which will be led by senior Workers’ Party official Kim Ki-nam and include the country’s spy chief, Kim Yang-gon.
He said the North Koreans were to fly to Seoul via a direct air route off the west coast.
Also yesterday, South Korea’s Red Cross said it would propose talks on resuming reunions of families separated since the Korean War. Red Cross spokeswoman Choi Min-kyu said her agency planned to send a message to the North’s Red Cross later yesterday proposing that the sides meet between Aug. 26 and Aug. 28.
On Monday, North Korea announced it would resume reunions of separated families at the country’s scenic Diamond Mountain resort during the “Chuseok” autumn harvest holiday on Oct. 3, which is celebrated in both Koreas.
South Korean officials have said they hope the reunions would take place before then.
Family reunions were key to a slew of rapprochement projects initiated after the 2000 summit between the two Kims.
Most have stalled because of renewed tension following the inauguration of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.
Meanwhile, the body of Kim Dae-jung has been transported to the National Assembly, where it will lie in state until his funeral on Sunday.
Kim’s body was placed in a coffin yesterday along with a Bible, a letter from his wife and her autobiography about life with the former dissident.
His wife and their three sons attended the solemn Roman Catholic ceremony.
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