S Korea: The South Korean government will allow private groups to send messages of condolence to North Korea after the death of its leader Kim Jong-Il, Seoul's unification ministry said Tuesday.
The last gesture of reconciliation came a day after Seoul expressed solidarity with the people of North Korea Kim's death, despite the high cross-border tensions. The ministry, which by law must approve all contacts between South Korea and North, who "basically allow" this type of message, the spokesman said Boh-Seon Choi.
"Our position is that we will authorize requests unless there is a special reason (not to)," Choi told reporters.
He said four groups seeking to send such messages include Hyundai Asan and the government of Roh Moo-Hyun Foundation, named in memory of the late former president of the South met with Kim in the second inter-Korean summit in 2007.
The South also suspended Tuesday a plan to display Christmas lights near the border, which had criticized the communist North as "psychological warfare".
Seoul not to send official delegates to Pyongyang to attend the funeral of Kim on December 28.
However, it has allowed the Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Chung-Eun and family of the late President Kim Dae-Jung Dae-Jung visit.Kim held its first summit with North Korean leader in 2000, while Hyundai was pioneer in cross-border business projects.
Hyun and Lee Hee-ho, the widow of Kim Dae-Jung, are taking formal steps to visit Pyongyang.
The media upstate announced Monday that leader Kim died Saturday of a heart attack at age 69. AFP
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