hankyoreh

third left

By Yi Yong-in, Staff Writer

A visiting South Korean delegation including Kim Dae-jung Peace Center president Lee Hee-ho and Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jung-eun expressed condolences Monday on the death of Kim Jong-il to his son, Workers' Party of Korea Central Military Commission vice chairman Kim Jong-un, the Ministry of Unification said.

A ministry official said Hyun and Lee, the widow of former President Kim Dae-jung, arrived at around 6:20 p.m. at Kumsusan Memorial Palace, where Kim Jong-il is lying, and paid their respects to the late chairman as well as to his successor, Kim Jong-un.

This marks the first time Kim has met with figures from South Korea. Observers said Lee and Hyun's meeting with him appeared to be very brief, taking the form of an expression of condolences to the chief mourner.

The Korean Central News Agency reported Monday evening that the members of the delegation "observed a moment of silence before the funeral portrait of Comrade Kim Jong-il and looked at his coffin. They expressed profound sympathies and consolation to Comrade Kim Jong-un."

The agency also reported that Kim Jong-un "expressed profound gratitude for this."

The delegation was reported to have had lunch at 1 p.m. after arriving at the Paekhwawon Guest House at around noon. They are scheduled to depart from Pyongyang early Tuesday morning

The party was met at a North Korean checkpoint by Asia-Pacific Peace Committee vice chairman Ri Jong-hyuk. Ri also greeted Hyun in August 2009 when she visited for a meeting with Kim Jong-il.

Meanwhile, an official from a private unification group traveled to North Korea on Monday to express condolences for Kim's death despite a government ban on such visits.

At a press conference Monday in front of the back gate of the Central Government Complex in Seoul, the Korea Alliance for Autonomous Unification and Democracy said that 35-year-old co-president Hwang Hye-ro had traveled to North Korea to express her condolences for Kim Jong-il's death.

Hwang, who lives in France, is known to have traveled to Pyongyang's Sunan International Airport on an Air Koryo flight Saturday from China's Beijing Capital International Airport.

The alliance also urged the government to permit condolence visits for all private groups.

"We need to open the floodgates for peaceful reunification with the expression of condolences for Chairman Kim," it said.

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