{"id":150671,"date":"2011-12-23T12:15:14","date_gmt":"2011-12-23T08:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/?p=150671"},"modified":"2011-12-23T13:14:31","modified_gmt":"2011-12-23T09:14:31","slug":"north-korea-warns-south-to-show-%e2%80%98respect%e2%80%99-for-kim-jong-il","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2011\/12\/23\/north-korea-warns-south-to-show-%e2%80%98respect%e2%80%99-for-kim-jong-il.html","title":{"rendered":"North Korea Warns South to Show \u2018Respect\u2019 for Kim Jong-il"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Korea urged South Korea on Friday to \u201cshow proper respect\u201d over the death of its leader, Kim Jong-il, calling the South\u2019s decision to express sympathy for the North Korean people but not to send a government delegation to Mr. Kim\u2019s funeral next week \u201can unbearable insult and mockery of our dignity,\u201d The New York Times<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span> reports.<\/p>\n

The statement, carried on the North\u2019s official Web site, Uriminzokkiri.com was the new Pyongyang leadership\u2019s first overture to South Korea since it announced on Monday that Mr. Kim died of heart attack last Saturday.<\/p>\n

Mr. Kim\u2019s sudden death and the untested leadership of his son and heir, Kim Jong-un, have set off a frenzy of analysis in the region over where the North Korean regime was headed under the young successor and how its neighbors should deal with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe South\u2019s authorities must think about the grave impact its actions will have on North-South relations,\u201d the North Korean statement warned. \u201cDepending on what it does, the relations can thaw or completely derail.\u201d<\/p>\n

It said North Korea will open its closed border with the South to accept all condolence delegations from South Korea, both private and governmental. It also guaranteed their safety.<\/p>\n

Choi Boh-seon, a South Korean government spokesman, said the South did not plan to revise its decision. \u201cWe announced what we would do, based on the past, present and future of South-North relations and the sentiments of our people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A day after Mr. Kim\u2019s death was announced, South Korea offered its \u201ccondolences to the North Korean people,\u201d hoping that Seoul and the new leadership in Pyongyang could \u201cwork together for peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula.\u201d But it said it would not send a delegation to Mr. Kim\u2019s funeral on Dec. 28.<\/p>\n

South Korea, however, authorized visits to the North by the families of the late President Kim Dae-jung, who held a landmark summit meeting with Mr. Kim in 2000, and the late Hyundai chairman, Chung Mong-hun, who had business ties with North Korea. It also said that private organizations and individuals would be permitted to mail or fax condolences, including a foundation named after the late President Roh Moo-hyun, who held a summit with Mr. Kim in 2007.<\/p>\n

In South Korea, religious and civic groups have called on the government to allow them to lead delegations to Mr. Kim\u2019s funeral. They argued that such visits would help improve relations and promote political reconciliations between the two Koreas. But other activist groups denounced such ideas, sending giant balloons to the North that carried messages like \u201cGo to hell, Kim Jong-il\u201d or \u201cWhy send condolences to the Evil?\u201d<\/p>\n

Under President Lee, inter-Korean relations have chilled to the lowest point in years, particularly after a South Korean warship sank in March last year in an explosion the South blamed on a North Korean torpedo attack. The North later shelled a South Korean border island. In the two incidents, 50 South Koreans were killed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Korea urged South Korea on Friday to \u201cshow proper respect\u201d over the death of its leader, Kim Jong-il, calling the South\u2019s decision to… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":150687,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[36024,25886,13545,13923],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150671"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}