N. Korean leader sends condolences on ex-President Roh's death

(ATTN: UPDATES with remarks by spokesman, former minister on N.K. message, ADDS
party paper also carrying message on front page, details, CORRECTS location of Roh's
home in 5th para)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, May 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on Monday expressed his
condolences to the family of former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun,
Pyongyang's media 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 reports did not say whether Kim sent a letter to Roh's family.
Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said no letter had been received yet
by the family. The Seoul government was cautious not to overestimate Kim's
message, but it at least "won't have a negative impact on inter-Korean
relations," Chun said.
The Rodong Sinmun, the country's major newspaper published by the ruling Workers'
Party, also ran Kim's message on its front page.
Roh leaped to his death from a cliff behind his home in the country's southeast
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 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 for Roh's
funeral in his hometown of Bongha Village this week.
Lee Jae-joung, former unification minister who accompanied Roh to the
inter-Korean summit, said Kim was paying respect to his former counterpart who
had sat with him face to face, but the message could not be seen as a warming
gesture toward the South.
"I believe it's good that Chairman Kim Jong-il expressed condolences," Lee said.
"But sending condolences is one thing, and the difficult inter-Korean relations
are another."
The so-called "sunshine policy" of engaging North Korea, initiated by Roh's
predecessor, Kim Dae-jung, was withdrawn by Lee, who ended government aid to the
impoverished North. 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)