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A North Korean delegation visited South Korea to join national mourning for former president Kim Dae-Jung on Friday, its leader calling for better relations 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. 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 1950-53 conflict. Dozens of protesters demonstrated at Gimpo airport and at the hotel where the delegation was staying.
They shouted "Down with Kim Jong-Il!" and burnt his portrait and a North Korean flag. Kim Dae-Jung held the first-ever inter-Korean summit in 2000 during his 1998-2003 presidency. He pioneered a "Sunshine" aid and engagement policy with the North which improved relations but failed to curb its drive for nuclear weapons. 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.
"We came to share our grief," Yonhap news agency quoted delegation leader Kim Ki-Nam as saying in a meeting with parliament Speaker Kim Hyong-O. "We have many things to do to improve inter-Korean relations" in accordance with the late president's wishes, Kim Ki-Nam was quoted as saying.
Kim Ki-Nam is a secretary of the ruling Communist party and close to Kim Jong-Il. The widow of the deceased ex-leader, Lee Hee-ho, expressed thanks at a meeting with the delegation. "I thank Chairman Kim Jong-Il for sending you this long way," she said, quoted by Yonhap. A senior presidential official told Yonhap on condition of anonymity that a meeting with President Lee Myung-Bak was possible if the visitors asked for one. Kim Ki-Nam expressed willingness to meet any South Korean officials, according to Park Jie-Won, a spokesman for the bereaved family.
Cross-border and regional tensions rose sharply in recent months after the North made threatening gestures to the South, fired a series of missiles and staged a second nuclear test which brought tougher United Nations sanctions. As Washington works to enforce the sanctions, Pyongyang this month has attempted to mend fences both with the United States and US ally South Korea.
Kim Jong-Il pardoned two American journalists after former president Bill Clinton flew to Pyongyang. The North freed a detained South Korean and on Monday announced its willingness to restart tourist trips and family reunions for South Koreans. Pyongyang also announced that, as of Friday, it is lifting tough restrictions on border crossings imposed last December as ties with Seoul went into deep freeze.
Diplomats from the North's United Nations mission held talks this week with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. He said the North Koreans indicated they wanted a new dialogue with the United States about the nuclear stand-off. South Korea previously shipped around 500,000 tons of rice and 300,000 tons of fertiliser annually to its neighbour, which suffers serious food shortages.
Shipments ended under the current conservative government. The North's team will not stay on for Kim Dae-Jung's state funeral Sunday. Around 100,000 people have visited 175 mourning altars nation-wide for Kim Dae-Jung, who died Tuesday aged 85.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2009

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