A North Korean delegation visited South Korea yesterday to join national mourning for former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung, and its leader called for better relations with Seoul after months of high tension.
The six-strong team, including two senior officials, delivered a wreath from the North’s leader Kim Jong-il and bowed their heads in mourning at an altar outside parliament.
“Condolences for late former president Kim Dae-jung,” read the message on the wreath.
PHOTO: AP
They were the first North Korean officials to pay tribute to a former South Korean president. The nations have remained technically at war since their 1950 to 1953 conflict.
Meanwhile, South Korean activists staged an anti-Pyongyang protest yesterday as the North Korean delegation arrived.
About 60 protesters shouted slogans opposing the visit at Gimpo airport in western Seoul where the delegation’s plane landed, witnesses said.
The group, which was surrounded by riot police, demanded an apology from Pyongyang for kidnapping and detaining South Koreans.
The North released a South Korean worker on Aug. 13 after more than four months of detention but still holds four fishermen whose boat strayed across the border on July 30.
Hundreds of South Koreans were seized during the Cold War era.
Kim Jong-il sent the delegation to express condolences for the death of Kim Dae-jung, who pioneered a reconciliation policy with the North. He died on Tuesday aged 85.
The visit provides an opportunity for dialogue with Seoul’s conservative government, which enraged Pyongyang last year by ending the “Sunshine” era and linking economic aid to nuclear disarmament.
Kim Ki-nam is a secretary of the ruling communist party and close to Kim Jong-il.
Seoul’s unification ministry said yesterday the North had not asked for any meeting and “as of now” there was no plan for one.
However, a senior presidential official told Yonhap on condition of anonymity that a meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak was possible if the visitors asked for one.
Meanwhile, China’s chief North Korea nuclear negotiator concluded a five-day visit to Pyongyang yesterday that included talks with his North Korean counterpart, Chinese state media reported.
Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei’s (武大偉) visit comes as North Korea’s regime is showing new signs of re-engaging with the outside world.
In a brief report, the Xinhua news agency said Wu met with Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan, the North’s representative to six-nation talks aimed at persuading it to dismantle its nuclear programs.
Xinhua said the two discussed “bilateral relations, the regional situation and issues of mutual concern,” but did not directly mention the nuclear issue.
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