How S. Korea responded to Kim Il Sung`s death in `94

When North Korea delivered news of the death of its leader Kim Jong Il on Monday, the communist country said it will not receive foreign delegations to Kim`s funeral. The North, however, could change its stance as South Korea has allowed private delegations to visit Pyongyang to pay tribute to Kim.

Pyongyang took the same stance when the Stalinist country`s founder Kim Il Sung died in 1994, but made an exception for South Korea, saying it would “receive a South Korean delegation with fraternal love” after the sending of a delegation to Pyongyang stoked controversy in Seoul.

When news of Kim Il Sung`s death was broken on July 9, 1994, then South Korean President Kim Young-sam offered no condolences to the North Korean leader, only saying at a national security meeting, "I feel regret (over Kim Il Sung`s death). South and North Korea`s leaders planned to meet two weeks later to have frank dialogue on peace on the Korean Peninsula and the future of our nation."

The Pan-Korean Alliance for Unification, a civic group in Seoul, said in a statement four days later that it decided to send a delegation to the North and asked for cooperation from the South Korean Unification Ministry.

The left-leaning (South) Korea Federation of University Student Councils also demanded a visit to North Korea the same day. On this, South Korean prosecutors threatened to punish civic groups for violation of the National Security Law if they send delegations via a third country without going through legal procedures.

North Korea, which had initially said it would not invite foreign delegations, changed its stance and announced that it would accept a South Korean delegation on July 14. The North`s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said in a statement, “We will respectfully receive the South Korean delegation with fraternal love.”

This was considered by experts as an apparent ploy to stoke internal conflict in South Korea.

The following day, Pyongyang blasted Seoul for prohibiting civic groups from sending delegations to Kim Il Sung`s funeral, with the Stalinist country’s state-run Korean Central News Agency saying, “At a time when even the heads of the U.S. and Japan express their condolences, only Kim Young-sam, who is the counterpart of the inter-Korean summit and a compatriot, is acting imprudently."

shcho@donga.com