HONG KONG — The South Korean government has agreed to allow North Korean diplomats to travel to Seoul on Friday to bring a funeral wreath for the former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung.
Several North Korean envoys are due to fly to Seoul on Friday and depart on Saturday, according to Seon Mi-kim, a press official with South Korea’s Unification Ministry.
The timing of the trip suggests the North Koreans will not attend the state funeral, which has been scheduled for Sunday afternoon. Instead, they are expected to meet with Mr. Kim’s widow, Lee Hee-ho, and other relatives, and perhaps visit a memorial altar at the National Assembly.
Following a series of recent conciliatory gestures, including a personal message of condolence from the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, the North floated the idea of a cross-border trip on Wednesday. The South agreed to the proposal on Thursday.
Kim Dae-jung, who died Tuesday at age 85, had traveled to North Korea for a landmark summit meeting in 2000 — including a now-famous handshake with Kim Jong-il. As president from 1998-2003, his “sunshine policy” achieved a rare rapprochement with the North.
Those policies have essentially been reversed by the current South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak.
South Korea canceled the first satellite launching from its own territory on Wednesday only seven minutes before the planned liftoff, momentarily averting new friction with North Korea. The North, which was widely denounced for launching a rocket this year, was angered by subsequent United Nations sanctions and has said the same punitive standards should be applied to the South.
But North Korea has taken steps in recent weeks, including releasing two American journalists and a South Korean worker, that have calmed tensions somewhat with the United States and on the Korean Peninsula.
In the last several days, North Korea declared its intention to reopen its highly militarized border to groups of tourists and to pursue possible new business ventures with the South.
In the latest sign of a thaw, two diplomats from North Korea met Wednesday with Gov.Bill Richardson of New Mexico, who twice went to North Korea in the 1990s to secure the release of Americans. Mr. Richardson declined to comment on the substance of the talks or say why North Korea requested the meeting, but he called it a “hopeful sign” of improving relations, The Associated Press reported.
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