Seoul, August 24: In death as in life, Kim Dae-jung managed to bring the two rival Koreas together.
Hours before his funeral Sunday, North Korean officials dispatched to Seoul to pay their respects to the Nobel Peace Prize winner held talks with South Korea’s president — the first high-level inter-Korean contact after many months of tension.
They relayed a message about bilateral relations from North Korean leader Kim Jong Il during a half hour of “serious and amicable” talks with President Lee Myung-bak, Lee’s spokesman said.
Seoul’s Chosun Ilbo and JoongAng Ilbo newspapers reported that the reclusive Kim had expressed his desire to hold a summit with Lee, citing unidentified officials. But Seoul’s presidential Blue House denied the reports.
The meeting itself was a fitting breakthrough on a day of mourning for a man who made history by traveling to Pyongyang in 2000 to meet Kim for the first summit between leaders of the two countries.
“Farewell, Mr. Sunshine,” read yellow placards held up by mourners who packed the plaza outside City Hall on Sunday to watch a broadcast of his funeral at the National Assembly. Kim Dae-jung died Aug. 18 at the age of 85.
The two Koreas technically remain in a state of war because their three-year conflict ended in 1953 with a truce, not a peace treaty. Tanks and troops still guard the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone bisecting the peninsula.
Kim, however, was respected on both sides of the border. As president from 1998 to 2003, he advocated a “Sunshine Policy” of engaging the isolated North and sought to ease reconciliation by plying the impoverished nation with aid.
He traveled to Pyongyang for the summit with Kim Jong Il in 2000, where the two Kims pledged to embark on a new era of peace on the Korean peninsula.
The following years saw a blossoming of reconciliation projects, including the emotional temporary reunions of thousands of family members separated by the Korean War, the restoration of a cross-border cargo train and inter-Korean business ventures.
Relations have been tense since Lee, a conservative, took office in February 2008, abandoning the Sunshine Policy and insisting that the North must prove its commitment to international nuclear disarmament pacts before it can expect aid.
Pyongyang, in response, ditched the reconciliation talks and most of the inter-Korean projects and routinely excoriated Lee in state media as “scum” and a “traitor” to Korean reconciliation.
The North also has been locked in an international standoff with the U.S. and other nations over its atomic ambitions after launching a rocket, test-firing missiles and conducting an underground nuclear test this year.
However, there have been signs the tensions may be easing. After welcoming former President Bill Clinton during his mission to secure the release of two jailed American reporters, the North freed a South Korean citizen held for four months. Pyongyang also said it would allow some joint projects to resume.
Kim Dae-jung’s death prompted condolences from Kim Jong Il, who authorized the high-level delegation of six to pay their respects — the first time the North has sent officials to mourn a South Korean president.
Extending their trip by a day, three North Korean officials met Sunday morning with Lee, relaying Kim Jong Il’s thoughts on “progress on inter-Korean cooperation,” presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said. He declined to quote the exact message, citing the sensitivity of the matter.
The South Korean president then detailed his government’s “consistent and firm” policy on North Korea and reiterated the need for “sincere” dialogue between the two Koreas, the spokesman said.
Hours later, a somber funeral took place at the National Assembly, where Kim — who endured torture, death threats and imprisonment during his decades as a dissident — triumphantly took the oath of office as South Korea’s president in 1998.
Though best known abroad for his efforts to reach out to North Korea, Kim Dae-jung was admired at home for devoting his life to the fight for democracy during South Korea’s early years of authoritarian rule.
A native of South Jeolla Province in the southwest, he went up against Seoul’s military and political elite. He narrowly lost to Park Chung-hee in a 1971 presidential election — a near-win that earned him Park’s wrath. Weeks later, Kim was injured in a traffic accident he believed was an assassination attempt, and barely survived a Tokyo abduction engineered by South Korean intelligence.
In 1980, tens of thousands took to the streets in Kim’s southern stronghold, Gwangju, to protest the junta that seized power when Park was assassinated in office. Kim, accused of fomenting the protests, was sentenced to death.
International calls for leniency resulted in a suspended prison sentence, and he went into exile. Returning in 1985, he helped usher in a new era of democracy in South Korea.
Memorials nationwide for the man dubbed the “Nelson Mandela of Asia” for his lifelong struggle for democracy attracted some 700,000 people, the government said.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was among the dignitaries who joined more than 20,000 for the funeral at parliament. Another 14,000 mourners gathered outside City Hall to watch a broadcast of the ceremony, police said.
–Agencies