SEOUL, (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong-il sent a message of condolence to the family of former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, whom he met in Pyongyang in 2007 for a historic summit, the North’s official media said yesterday.
Roh, 62, and out of office for about 15 months, apparently jumped to his death on Saturday from a cliff overlooking his rural home after being implicated in a swirling corruption scandal that tainted his reformer image.
“On hearing the news that former President Roh Moo-hyun died in an accident, I express profound condolences to widow Kwon Ryang-suk and his bereaved family,” the one-sentence message carried by the North’s KCNA news agency said.
North Korea’s media, which first reported on Roh’s death about a day after the likely suicide, has viciously attacked successor President Lee Myung-bak for ending the flow of unconditional aid it saw under Roh and instead linking handouts to moves Pyongyang makes to end its nuclear arms programme.
