N. Korean leader sends condolences on death of widow of Rev. Moon Ik-hwan

SEOUL, Sept. 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has sent a rare message of his condolences on the death of the widow of Rev. Moon Ik-hwan, a late South Korean pro-democracy activist, the North's media reported Tuesday.
Park Yong-gil died on Sunday of a chronic illness at 93. Her late husband Moon, a Presbyterian minister who led the pro-democracy movement in South Korea, made an unauthorized visit to North Korea in 1989 and met then North Korean leader Kim Il-sung.
She had also devoted herself to reconciliation between the two Koreas. In a dispatch, the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim sent his message to the family of Park.
"Upon hearing the sad news that Pak Yong-gil, widow of Rev. Mun (Moon) Ik-hwan, died from illness, I express deep condolence to the bereaved family of the deceased," KCNA quoted Kim as saying.
Park "passed away to our sorrow before seeing the spring of reunification she had longed for so much, but the patriotic soul she devoted to the national concord and reunification will always be remembered," it quoted Kim as saying.
Moon, who was jailed for nearly four years in South Korea for making an unapproved visit to Pyongyang, died of a heart ailment in 1994.
Kim's condolence message to the family of Park was highly unusual. In 2009, North Korea's Kim dispatched a high-level delegation to South Korea to mourn the death of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.
Meanwhile, the South's unification ministry in charge of North Korean affairs, rejected a plan by the family of Park to visit the North Korean border city of Kaesong to meet North Korean officials.
The two Koreas remain in a state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with a truce, not a peace treaty. South Korea strictly restricts contact with the North without prior approval.