S Korea ex-First Lady Lee Hee-ho mourns Kim Jong-il

---

South Korea's former First Lady has travelled to Pyongyang to offer condolences over Kim Jong-il's death, reports BBC. Lee Hee-ho, whose husband Kim Dae-jung tried to improve relations with the North, is the highest-profile of two delegations allowed by the South. Officials said Mrs Lee, 89, was not representing the government. She will not stay for the funeral Wednesday. Meanwhile, state media in the North continues to promote Kim Jong-il's son, Kim Jong-un, as his father's successor. The Rodong Sinmun newspaper has described Kim Jong-un as the head of the Workers' Party Central Committee, meaning that he now controls one of the country's highest decision-making bodies. The newspaper earlier gave him the title of "supreme commander" of the armed forces. Seoul has allowed only two private delegations to travel north to pay their respects, and will not be sending any officials to the funeral. The South's refusal to allow its citizens to travel has angered Pyongyang, which has warned of "grave implications" for relations. Mrs Lee, who met Kim Jong-il during a landmark summit in 2000, said in a statement that she hoped her visit would help to improve relations on the peninsula. When Kim il-Sung died in 1994, South Korea didn't send any kind of condolence message and didn't allow people to travel north. That created a lot of bad blood between the two countries. At the moment South Korea says it is keen to not appear hostile. The president has said he wants to try to reach out, and the government has sent a message of sympathy to the North Korean people. As far as the North Korean media sees it, this gesture is not enough. They say it is the first real test of relations between the two countries during the mourning period, and the South has failed. "As chairman Kim Jong-il sent a condolence delegation to Seoul when my husband passed away in 2009, I believe it is our duty to express our condolences," she said.