(2nd LD) N. Korean leader sends condolences on ex-President Roh's death

(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead; UPDATES with Seoul spokesman's quote; MINOR EDITS
throughout; TRIMS)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, May 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on Monday expressed
condolences to the family of former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun,
Pyongyang's official news wire said, in a move that came amid frozen political
relations on the peninsula.

"On hearing the news that former President Roh Moo-hyun died in an accident, I
express profound condolences to widow Kwon Yang-sook and his bereaved family,"
Kim was quoted as saying by the Korean Central News Agency.
The report did not say whether Kim sent a letter to Roh's family.
Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said Kim was paying his tribute
through state media and that no letter had been received by the family, adding
that is "not likely, given current inter-Korean relations."
Roh leaped to his death from a cliff behind his home in the country's southwest
on Saturday morning. The former president had come under investigation for
bribe-taking after allegations emerged that his wife and son and his brother's
son-in-law had been given more than $6 million by a corrupt businessman.
North Korea briefly reported the news on Sunday. On the cause of his death, state
media only said that South Korean and foreign media reports were suspecting "the
mental burden caused by the intensive investigation of the prosecution."
Kim's message comes amid deadlocked inter-Korean relations. Pyongyang has cut off
dialogue with Seoul's conservative government -- led by Roh's successor, Lee
Myung-bak -- who has taken a tougher stance on the North's nuclear program and
human rights condition.
Roh had pushed for reconciliation with the North, and held the second ever
inter-Korean summit with Kim in Pyongyang in 2007. Under Roh, rice and fertilizer
aid was steadily given to the North even after its nuclear test in 2006.
The two Koreas had exchanged messages and delegations to pay tribute to late
dignitaries amid thawed relations during a decade of liberal rule in South Korea
that ended when Roh left office early last year.
The tradition started in 1994 when then North Korean President Kim Il-sung sent a
message of condolence to the family of pastor Moon Ik-hwan, a unification
activist jailed for visiting Pyongyang during the Cold War era in 1989.
Following the 2001 death of Chung Ju-young, the founder of Hyundai Group who
initiated South Korean investment in the North, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il
sent a delegation to pay tribute to him.
Kim also sent envoys to Geneva for the funeral of Lee Jong-wook, the South Korean
director-general of the World Health Organization, in 2006.
South Korea did not officially offer condolences on the death of Kim Il-sung,
North Korea's founder, in the summer of 1994, prompting an outrage in Pyongyang,
but it has since delivered official tributes to late North Korean dignitaries.
Monday's report did not say whether North Korea would send a delegation. The
ministry spokesman said if Pyongyang does so, the visit must first be accepted by
Roh's family and also by the Seoul government.
The so-called "sunshine policy" of engaging North Korea, initiated by Roh's
predecessor, Kim Dae-jung, was withdrawn when President Lee Myung-bak took office
last year. Lee ended government aid to the impoverished North, and Pyongyang
suspended government-level dialogue in retaliation.
As relations slid to a deeper stalemate this year, North Korea scrapped
non-aggression pacts and inter-Korean economic accords governing a joint
industrial park on its soil. The North is also holding a South Korean worker at
the joint park who was detained in March for criticizing its political system.
South Korea has put a selective ban on North Korea visits by non-government aid
organizations.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)