By Sangwon Yoon and Jiyeun Lee - Dec 26, 2011 8:52 AM GMT+0700
Hyundai Group’s chairwoman and a former South Korean first lady crossed into the North on a private visit as their government’s restrictions on condolences for the death of Kim Jong Il drew warnings of “unpredictable catastrophic consequences” from the regime in Pyongyang.
Lee Hee Ho, the 89-year-old widow of former President Kim Dae Jung, said it was her duty to offer condolences. Lee and Hyundai’s Hyun Jeong Eun are leading 18 South Koreans who are expected to arrive in the North Korean capital about 11:30 a.m. local time, according the Unification Ministry in Seoul.
The reaction to any attempts by the South to bar citizens from paying respect for the former dictator Kim underscored efforts to buttress the position of the deceased leader’s son, Kim Jong Un. The ruling party named the younger Kim head of its central committee, and the official Korean Central News Agency started referring to him as “supreme leader of the revolutionary armed forces” and “tender-hearted father.”
“The DPRK will never tolerate anyone checking mourners,” the North’s official news service said yesterday, citing the state-run Committee for Peaceful Reunification of Korea and referring to the nation by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “The South Korean authorities should bear in mind that their obstructions will entail unpredictable catastrophic consequences to the North-South relations.”
Condolences by Fax
No government officials from Seoul will pay condolences, according to the Unification Ministry, which oversees policy toward North Korea. South Korea, which prohibits its citizens from traveling to the North except to visit the jointly run Gaeseong industrial complex, gave special permission for Lee and Hyun. Private individuals and groups, also banned by South Korean law from praising the North Korean regime, are being allowed to send condolences via mail or fax.
While the Lee and Hyun delegation didn’t say if it would see Kim Jong Un, who is thought to be in his late 20s, such a meeting is likely, according to Paik Hak Soon, director of North Korean studies at Seongnam, South Korea-based Sejong Institute. Chances of any political progress are limited, Paik said.
In the U.S., Senator Richard Lugar, the top Republican on the chamber’s Foreign Relations Committee, said he is concerned that the transition to a new North Korean leader could provide an opening for the transfer of nuclear materials out of the country.
Senator’s Concern
“Some in the country might try to sell this to others because of the economic crisis that they have,” Lugar said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program. “That would certainly be one of the missions that I would be most concerned about.”
Paik said a flurry of official statements hailing the younger Kim over the past week indicates that he may be given the highest formal roles in the country more quickly than was his father, who waited three years for the titles following the death of the nation’s founder, Kim Il Sung.
Jang Song Thaek, an ally and brother-in-law of Kim Jong Il, was shown in military uniform for the first time on state television yesterday, Yonhap news reported. Jang’s role within the power structure is widening and this will help him guide and protect the young leader, said Kim Yong Hyun, a professor of North Korea studies at Dongguk University in Seoul.
The group that left today is traveling by land and crossed the border about 8:30 a.m. through the Demilitarized Zone near the village of Panmunjom, where a cease-fire that ended fighting in the Korean War was signed in 1953.
Special Permission
South Korea’s government on Dec. 20 expressed “sympathy” to the people of North Korea over Kim’s Dec. 17 death, stopping short of offering formal condolences. His funeral is planned for Dec. 28.
Chung Ju Yung, the late founder of the Hyundai Group, herded cattle across the border during a famine in the North in 1998, expressing his desire to reunite the two Koreas. Kim Dae Jung traveled to Pyongyang for a landmark summit with his North Korean counterpart in 2000, part of his so-called Sunshine Policy that attempted to defuse tension on the peninsula.
To contact the reporters on this story: Sangwon Yoon in Seoul at syoon32@bloomberg.net; Jiyeun Lee in Seoul at jlee1029@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Brett Miller at bmiller30@bloomberg.net
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