North Korea to Send Delegation to South for Kim Dae-jung Funeral
By VOA News
19 August 2009
North Korea plans to send a delegation to the funeral of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who died Tuesday at the age of 85.
A former aide to Mr. Kim told reporters Wednesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il sent condolences to Mr. Kim's family and arranged for special envoys to attend his funeral.
Mr. Kim died of multiple organ failure at a Seoul hospital where he was admitted last month with pneumonia.
Current and former South Korean leaders visited the hospital Tuesday to pay their respects, including U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who was a vice foreign minister in Mr. Kim's administration.
Mr. Kim won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on reconciliation with long-time enemy North Korea while serving as president from 1998 to 2003. Mr. Kim said he believed in a future in which North and South Korea cooperate, reconcile and reunify.
In 2000, Mr. Kim arranged a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il - the first between the neighboring states since 1953, when an armistice ended the Korean War.
Current President Lee Myung-bak said South Korea lost a "great political leader" whose "aspirations to achieve democratization and inter-Korean reconciliation will long be remembered by the people."
U.S. President Barack Obama praised Mr. Kim as a "courageous champion of democracy and human rights."
Mr. Obama said Mr. Kim risked his life to lead a movement that was crucial in establishing democracy in South Korea. As a democracy activist in the 1970s, Mr. Kim opposed abuses of power by authoritarian President Park Chung Hee, who took power in a 1961 coup.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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