North Koreans pay respects to Kim Dae-jung

[August 21, 2009]  SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- A high-level delegation of North Korean officials paid their respects Friday to late South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, shaking his sons' hands and leaving a wreath at the National Assembly mourning site.

The visit is the first to Seoul by North Korean officials in nearly two years, and only the second time the regime has sent a delegation to South Korea for mourning rites. Dressed in black, they laid a wreath emblazoned with the name of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il at the altar for the former president.

Chief delegate Kim Ki Nam then burned incense, and the six-member delegation bowed before a large portrait of Kim Dae-jung before greeting his family.

The visit to mourn a man who devoted his presidency to building better relations with the communist North raised hopes of improved ties on the tense Korean peninsula. Kim died Tuesday at age 85.

The two Koreas officially remain in a state of war because their three-year conflict ended in 1953 with a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.

Kim Dae-jung was respected on both sides of the border for his efforts to break down decades of postwar mistrust. His "Sunshine Policy" of reaching out to the impoverished North with aid -- highlighted by a historic summit with Kim Jong Il in 2000 -- earned him the Nobel Peace Prize.

The North Koreans' closely watched trip may provide a valuable opportunity for dialogue between the two Koreas, whose relations have deteriorated since South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, a conservative, took office last year, abandoning the Sunshine Policy.

Lee has said North Korea must follow through on its commitments to nuclear disarmament before receiving aid.

It was not clear whether the delegation, which includes spy chief Kim Yang Gon, would hold talks with South Korean officials before returning home Saturday.

Kim Ki Nam, the North's chief delegate, told the South Korean vice unification minister that his delegation expressed its willingness to meet with South Korean officials, Yonhap news agency reported, citing opposition lawmaker Park Jie-won, who attended the session.

Park, a former aide to Kim Dae-Jung, was not immediately reachable for comment.

The president's office said Lee had not received any such request.

Some 50 demonstrators chanted "topple Kim Jong Il dictatorship" near a hotel where the North's delegation was expected to stay, burning a North Korean flag and a photo of the North's leader. There was a minor scuffle between activists and police.

North Korea has only dispatched a condolence delegation once before -- a one-day trip in 2001 to mourn Chung Ju-yung, the founder of South Korea's Hyundai Group, which funded the first inter-Korean joint projects.

The visit is the latest conciliatory gesture by North Korea after months of tensions during which it pulled out of nuclear negotiations, conducted an atomic test and test-fired a barrage of missiles, earning international condemnation and U.N. sanctions.

After former President Bill Clinton went to North Korea on Aug. 4 to secure the release of jailed American reporters Euna Lee and Laura Ling, holding talks during the visit with Kim Jong Il, the North released a South Korean whom it had held for four months.

It also agreed to allow the resumption of some joint North-South projects suspended amid tensions with Seoul, and said it would lift restrictions on cross-border traffic in place since December and resume cargo train service across the border.

The U.S. plans to send a condolence delegation led by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to the funeral, a South Korean official said. The official asked not to identified because no official announcement has been made yet. Albright was the top U.S. diplomat during part of Kim Dae-jung's term in office.

As hopes for warmer ties increase, North Korean diplomats met for a second day Thursday in the United States with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

Richardson said they told him North Korea was ready to discuss its nuclear program with Washington. The regime abandoned six-nation talks on nuclear disarmament earlier this year. The governor described the discussions as "very positive."

A Chinese negotiator also held talks on the North's nuclear program. Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, Beijing;s chief nuclear negotiatior for North Korea, concluded a five-day visit to Pyongyang on Friday that included talks with his North Korean counterpart, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, KCNA said. The report said the two discussed their countries' relations but did not specifically mention the nuclear issue.

Despite the slew of overtures, a North Korean military official warned that his country is also bracing for conflict with the U.S. and South Korea -- during Seoul and Washington's annual computer-simulated war games.

North Korea will deal a "merciless and immediate" strike against any U.S. or South Korean provocation, KCNA quoted the unidentified official as saying. Both the U.S. and South Korea say the exercises are purely defensive.

[Associated Press; By KWANG-TAE KIM]

Associated Press writers Wanjin Park in Seoul, Melanie Dabovich in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Foster Klug in Washington contributed to this report.

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