LEAD: North Korea warns South to show "due respect" for Kim

Dec 23, 2011, 5:24 GMT

Seoul - North Korea warned South Korea Friday that their relations were at a crucial point and could deteriorate over the issue of condolences after the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

'North-South relations are at a critical juncture,' the official North Korean website Uriminzokkiri said while warning the South of tremendous consequences if it reacts similarly to Kim's death as it did to the 1994 death of his father, North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung.

Ties worsened after Seoul did not send an official delegation to Kim Il Sung's funeral, and President Lee Myung Bak's government said this week that it would also not send an official delegation in the wake of his son's death.

Uriminzokkiri, a website run by North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea and considered a mouthpiece of the government, warned the South that it was insulting its neighbour's dignity and there would be consequences.

It said North Korea would allow the entry of all delegations from South Korea offering condolences for the death of Kim Jong Il, who, state media said, died Saturday of a heart attack at 69.

North Korea would open air routes and land routes through the border village of Kaesong as 'a sign of our courtesy' to those who want to mourn, Uriminzokkiri said.

How South Korea is reacting to Kim Jong Il's death highlights the tensions between it and its neighbour, with whom it is still technically at war after an armistice and not a peace treaty ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

South Korean politicians were divided on the condolence issue with one camp arguing for official condolences and a condolence delegation, seeing them as an opportunity to improve ties. The other side rejected such moves, pointing to last year's sinking of a South Korean warship, which Seoul blamed on the North, and North Korea's artillery bombardment of a South Korean border island. The incidents killed 50 South Koreans.

Seoul chose a middle path. While not sending official condolences to Pyongyang, it offered sympathy to the North Korean people.

It also said it would allow condolence delegations led by the widows of former South Korean president Kim Dae Jung and Hyundai Group chairman Chung Mon Hun. North Korea had sent delegations to the funerals of Kim Dae Jung, who held the first inter-Korean summit with Kim Jong Il in 2000, and Chung, who led business tie-ups between the two Koreas.

South Korea said it would also allow private citizens and groups to send their condolences by email or fax to North Korea.

The South Korean government must green-light any contact with North Korea, so any visits or messages must first receive approval.

'North-South relations are at a critical juncture' and Seoul should show 'due respect,' Uriminzokkiri said.

South Korean President Lee Myung Bak said Thursday that his country was making efforts to show it has no hostility toward North Korea in the wake of Kim Jong Il's death.

Kim Jong Il's funeral is scheduled for Wednesday.