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N. Korea to Send Envoys to Kim Dae-Jung's Funeral

North Korea said Wednesday that it would send a delegation to the funeral of the former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung, according to a lawmaker quoted by the Yonhap news agency in Seoul. Such an official visit would signal a drastic change in policy regarding diplomatic exchanges.

Park Jie-won, an opposition member of Parliament who was once an aide to Mr. Kim, said Wednesday that he received the news of the visit in a letter faxed from the North Korean government agency in charge of cross-border affairs. The agency said five North Korean “special envoys” would make a one- or two-day trip for the funeral, bringing with them a wreath from the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il...

... In recent years, most diplomatic contact between the Koreas has taken place in Beijing, at the United Nations or across a conference table in the neutral zone between the North and the South...
Read entire article at NYT