By Jun Ji-hye
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un delivered a personal message to Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun Saturday during the latter’s visit to the communist state to hold a memorial service in Mt. Geumgang resort for the late Hyundai Chairman Chung Mong-hun.
It was the young North Korean leader’s first ever personal message given to somebody from the South.
According to the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim said in his messages conveyed by Won Dong-yeon, deputy chief of the United Front Department, that: “Chung Mong-hun opened up the way of national reconciliation and cooperation. He contributed a lot to improving inter-Korean relations and preparing for unification.”
Kim added, “I pray for the soul of the deceased. I wish Hyun and Hyundai group the best of luck in the future.”
Pyongyang’s official news agency reported that Hyundai Group officials promised to spare no efforts to resume Mt. Geumgang tours and boost reconciliation between the two Koreas in line with the wish of Hyundai Group founder Chung Ju-yung and his sixth son Chung Mong-hun.
The Seoul government did not issue its official stance on Kim’s message given to Hyun, saying the visit did not have any political meaning.
Hyun, wife of Chung Mong-hun, crossed the demilitarized zone Saturday morning with 38 other executives of Hyundai Asan and returned to the South in the afternoon after holding a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of Chung’s death.
Chung committed suicide in 2003 under pressure of an impending prosecution investigation into allegations that then President Kim Dae-jung secretly sent a large amount of money to the North ahead of the first ever inter-Korean summit in 2000.
Hyundai Asan, the group’s North Korea business wing, facilitated inter-Korean tourism projects including Mt. Geumgang tours as well as business cooperation between the two Koreas such as the Gaeseong Industrial Complex.
The Mt. Geumgang tour was suspended after a female South Korean tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier in July 2008, while operations at Gaeseong have been halted since early April amid mounting tensions on the Korean Peninsula following the Stalinist state’s third nuclear test on Feb. 12.