hankyoreh

By Kim Kyu-won, Staff Writer

The Korean Central News Agency published a detailed account Wednesday from the Secretariat of North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland on an exchange between the North and South Korean governments in connection with former First Lady Lee Hee-ho and Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun's visit to Pyongyang to pay respects for the death of Kim Jong-il.
The committee said the South Korean government initially "presented additional conditions, saying the condolence visits had to be completed within a day and that they would have to return without attending the sendoff ceremony."
It added that the schedule was changed to two days and one night after strong urging from North Korea. "Does it make sense to have Lee Hee-ho travel at the break of dawn and come back that night at her age?" authorities are reported to have asked. Lee, the widow of former President Kim Dae-jung and president of the Kim Dae-jung Peace Center, is 89.
The committee also reported South Korean authorities as saying Lee and Hyun's party would have to receive an invitation from North Korea to travel to Pyongyang, to which North Korean authorities responded that "condolence visits are done of their own will, not by invitation, and it is etiquette and common practice to follow our guidance on the schedule for the condolence event."
The committee plans for South Korean government officials to accompany Hyun and Kim were cancelled after learning that anyone visiting Pyongyang had to express condolences.
The committee also claimed that South Korea’s Unification Ministry censored private citizens’ messages of condolence: "In addition to preventing people from using expressions such as 'seogeo' ["passing"], 'aedo' ["lamenting"], and 'joui' ["condolences"], [the Ministry] cut out anything it found offensive," the committee said.
Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk said, "We cannot agree with the North's claims, and we do not intend to refute them individually."

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