SEOUL:Tens of thousands of mourners filled the lawn outside parliament for the state funeral Sunday of ex-President Kim Dae-jung, a longtime defender of democracy and advocate of reconciliation who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to reach out to communist North Korea.
The solemn funeral was the first held at the National Assembly where Kim — who endured torture, death threats and imprisonment during his decades as an opposition leader — triumphantly took the oath of office as South Korea's president in 1998.
In central Seoul, mourners watching a public broadcast of the funeral waved small yellow posters that read: "Farewell, Mr. Sunshine: Without you, we would never have known democracy."
The mourning period for Kim, who died Tuesday at age 85, lasted six days. Memorials nationwide for a man dubbed the "Nelson Mandela of Asia" for his lifelong struggle for democracy drew hundreds of thousands of mourners, including a high-level North Korean delegation dispatched by leader Kim Jong Il.
The Pyongyang delegation's visit included talks with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak hours before the funeral, Lee's first high-level contact with the regime since taking office. Ties have been tense between the two Koreas since the conservative Lee became president in February 2008, but the talks Sunday with officials bearing a verbal message from Kim Jong Il were "cordial," according to a presidential spokesman.
The two Koreas remain in a state of war because their three-year conflict ended in 1953 in a truce, not a peace treaty. Tanks and troops still guard the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone dividing the two sides.
Kim Dae-jung, however, was respected on both sides of the border. As president from 1998 to 2003, his "Sunshine Policy" advocated engaging the isolated, nuclear-armed North, and sought to ease reconciliation by plying the impoverished nation with aid.
He traveled to Pyongyang in 2000 for a historic summit with Kim Jong Il — a first between leaders from the two Koreas. Raising their hands aloft in a sight that would have been unimaginable just years earlier, the two Kims pledged to embark on a new era of peace on the Korean peninsula.
The following years saw a flowering of reconciliation projects, including the emotional reunions of thousands of Koreans separated from family members during the Korean War, the restoration of a cross-border cargo train and inter-Korean business ventures.
Some criticized the flow of money to North Korea, which has evaded years of international pressure to dismantle its nuclear program.
Ties have been tense since Lee abandoned the Sunshine Policy when he took office insisting North Korea must prove its commitment to international nuclear disarmament pacts before it can expect aid.
Pyongyang, in response, abandoned the reconciliation talks and most of the inter-Korean projects. The North also has been locked in an international standoff with the U.S. and other nations over its atomic ambitions after launching a rocket, test-firing missiles and conducting an underground nuclear test.
However, there have been signs of an easing of tensions on the Korean peninsula in recent days. After welcoming former U.S. President Bill Clinton during his mission to secure the release of two jailed American reporters, the North freed a South Korean citizen held for four months.
Kim Dae-jung's death prompted condolences from Kim Jong Il, who dispatched a high-level delegation of six to pay their respects — the first time the North has sent officials to mourn a former South Korean president.
Led by senior Workers' Party official Kim Ki Nam and spy chief Kim Yang Gon, the delegation went straight to the mourning site at the National Assembly Friday. North Korea has sent a high-level condolence delegation only once before — for the 2001 funeral of Chung Ju-yung, founder of South Korea's Hyundai Group, which funded the first inter-Korean joint projects.
On Sunday, three North Korean officials met with Lee for a half hour, relaying Kim Jong Il's thoughts on "progress on inter-Korean cooperation," Seoul presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said.
Lee detailed his government's "consistent and firm" policy on North Korea and reiterated the need for "sincere" dialogue between the two Koreas, the spokesman said.
"Thank you! Thank you! We're heading back in a positive mood," Kim Ki Nam told reporters as the delegation departed for their flight.
Sunday's memorial was South Korea's second state funeral, the nation's highest tribute. President Park Chung-hee was accorded a state funeral in 1979 after being assassinated while in office.
Though best known abroad for his efforts to reach out to North Korea, he was beloved at home for devoting his life to the fight for democracy during South Korea's early years of authoritarian rule.
A native of South Jeolla Province in the southwest, he went up against Seoul's military and political elite. He nearly beat Park in a presidential election in 1971 — a near-win that earned the military-run government's wrath. Weeks later, Kim was injured in a suspicious traffic accident he believed was an assassination attempt, and narrowly survived a Tokyo abduction documents show was engineered by South Korean intelligence.
In 1980, tens of thousands took to the streets in Kim's southern stronghold, Gwangju, to protest the junta that seized power when Park was assassinated. Kim, accused of fomenting the violent protests, was sentenced to death by a military tribunal.
International calls for leniency resulted in a suspended prison sentence, and he went into exile in the U.S. But on his return in 1985, he persevered as an opposition leader, and helped usher in new era of democracy in South Korea.
Prime Minister Han Seung-soo called Kim "a great political leader."
"We can't contain our grief," he said at the multi-faith ceremony held under a blistering sun. Kim was Catholic but in a reflection of the different faiths observed in South Korea, the funeral included Christian and Buddhist rites.
Kim's widow, Lee Hee-ho, bowed deeply before a portrait of her late husband. "I so loved and respected you, who tolerated such a bitter and painful life," she wrote in a letter placed in his coffin Friday, along with a hand-knitted blanket, a Bible, a handkerchief and her autobiography about life with the former dissident.
President Lee, former presidents and foreign leaders were among the more than 20,000 officials said attended the ceremony, many bowing before his portrait, burning incense and white chrysanthemums, the traditional Korean mourning flower. After the funeral, Kim's body was to be transported to a cemetery for burial.
The funeral comes just three months after the suicide of former President Roh Moo-hyun, a political ally who succeeded Kim Dae-jung in the Blue House and maintained his Sunshine Policy.
Roh, who jumped to his death amid a growing corruption investigation implicating his family, was given a people's funeral.
- AP