S. Korea sends condolences to N. Korean people

[ellisonz]

By the CNN Wire Staff - CNN's Jiyeon Lee, Barbara Starr, Alina Cho and Madison Park contributed to this report.
updated 3:39 AM EST, Tue December 20, 2011

(CNN) -- The South Korean government sent its condolences to the people of North Korea following the death of Kim Jong Il, South Korea's unification minister said Tuesday.

In a televised press conference, Unification Minister Yoo Woo-ik also said Seoul will not send a government delegation to North Korea. However, the South will allow bereaved family members of the late South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and the late Hyundai Group Chairman Chung Mong-hun to visit the North in return for a visit by North Korean delegates to the funerals of the two South Korean figures.

In addition, the South Korean government asked church groups to refrain from lighting Christmas trees near the demilitarized zone between the two countries due to the North's mourning period. The Christmas trees have been deemed a symbol of psychological warfare, and North Korea threatened in the past to retaliate if the South lights the trees.

Meanwhile, Kim Jong Un, the son and successor of the recently deceased North Korean leader --viewed his father's body in Pyongyang on Tuesday, state-run media said, as the world watched for clues on how the leadership transition will play out in the insular dictatorship.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/20/world/asia/north-korea-leader/index.html?eref=rss_topstories