N. Korea to send 'special envoys' to Kim Dae-jung's funeral

By Kim Hyun

SEOUL, Aug. 19 (Yonhap) -- North Korea sent a letter to Seoul Wednesday saying it will dispatch a delegation of special envoys to pay tribute to the late former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.

Kim, who died from multiple organ failure a day earlier at age 85, is one of the
few South Korean dignitaries well respected in North Korea. The lifelong fighter
for democracy held a historic first summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il
in 2000, which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize later that year.
The North Korean leader "arranged a delegation of special envoys to visit (the
funeral). The delegation will bring a wreath sent by (him)," said the letter from
the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, the North's semi-official organ in charge
of inter-Korean affairs.
The letter was faxed to the Kim Dae Jung Peace Center, a non-governmental
organization established by the former president, said Park Jie-won, a lawmaker
from the major opposition Democratic Party who was Kim's chief of staff.
The delegation will be comprised of five special envoys, led by a secretary and a
department director of the Workers' Party, the letter said. They will come by
flight over the West Sea on a one-day trip for the funeral, but the stay can be
extended by one more day "if necessary," it added.
"Please let us know as soon as possible" how to proceed with the trip, it said,
as the funeral date has not yet been set.
The North Korean ruling party is known to have two secretaries directly involved
in inter-Korean affairs, Choe Thae-bok and Kim Ki-nam, and it was not yet known
which of them will come. Kim Ki-nam visited the former president when he was
hospitalized in 2005.
Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said the Seoul government has
"received no such information yet from North Korea and was holding a
comprehensive review" over whether to accept the visit. Lee Dong-kwan, spokesman
for President Lee Myung-bak, said a day earlier, "There is no reason to oppose (a
North Korean delegation) if it intends to come to pay condolences."
Earlier Wednesday, the official Korean Central News Agency promptly carried the
North Korean leader's condolence message to the former president's family.
"Though he passed away to our regret, the feats he performed to achieve national
reconciliation and realize the desire for reunification will remain long with the
nation," he said.
In North Korea, the long-time dissident is one of the few South Korean
dignitaries held in warm regard. Grieving Pyongyang citizens were paying their
respects to Kim, said the Choson Sinbo, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper in Japan. North
Korea refrained from any direct criticism against him, even when political
relations remained icy during the early years of his 1998-2003 presidency,
experts pointed out.
"The North Korean people perceive him as a democracy fighter and the one who
contributed to political reconciliation. For Chairman Kim Jong-il, he will be
remembered as the most trustworthy South Korean leader," Koh Yu-hwan, a North
Korea studies professor at Dongguk University, said.
Since 1994, North Korea has sent messages of condolence from its leader to South
Korean figures who had a role in spearheading inter-Korean exchanges, but sending
a delegation was reserved for a very few.
In 2001, the North Korean leader sent a four-member delegation and a wreath to
the funeral of Hyundai Group founder Chung Ju-yung who had opened business
relations with North Korea.
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.
When former President Roh Moo-hyun died in May, the North Korean leader sent a
condolence message, but not a delegation. Cross-border tensions were soaring at
the time over the North's long-range rocket launch. Roh, who succeeded Kim as
president, took part in the second inter-Korean summit in 2007.
Pyongyang's latest move follows a series of softening gestures. The North Korean
leader released a detained South Korean worker and agreed to resume joint
ventures and family reunions in a meeting with Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun
Jeong-eun. He also recently pardoned two detained American journalists, releasing
them during a visit to Pyongyang by former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
Cheong Seong-chang, an expert with the non-governmental Sejong Institute, said
frozen inter-Korean relations will dramatically thaw should President Lee meet
with the North Korean envoys.
"A party secretary and a department director are among the few closest aides to
the North Korean leader," Cheong said. "If President Lee Myung-bak meets with the
delegation and delivers a conciliatory message to the North Korean leader, it
will mark a turning point in inter-Korean relations."
North Korea appears to have used a non-official channel to send the letter in
order to "save face," as it severed government-level contact last year, Cheong
said.
Inter-Korean relations rapidly chilled after the conservative Lee came to power
last year, taking a tougher stance on North Korea's nuclear program and cutting
off government aid to the impoverished state.