N Korea leader sends condolences to S Korean Prez over mother's demise

Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader has reportedly sent his condolence to South Korean President Moon Jae-in over his mother's recent demise. Ko Min-jung, Moon's spokesperson said that the message was sent via an inter-Korean border village on October 30 and delivered to President Moon in the southeastern city of Busan, the mourning station. The North Korean leader expressed his “deep commemorating and condolence” over Kang Han-ok's death. 

As North Korea and South Korea are facing issues regarding the lack of progress in a US-led effort to rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons program, it is still unclear if Kim's condolence message would affect the relations between both the nations. The South Korean President at the United Nations General Assembly, also called for close ties among the Koreas and while talking to top leaders at New York, he said, “will guarantee the security of North Korea. I hope North Korea will do the same for South Korea”. While there have been many summits between North Korea supreme leader Kim Jong-un with US President Donald Trump and South Korea's Moon Jae-in, the uncertainty to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear and missile program still remains.

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Diamond Mountain resort

South Korea further suggested a meeting with North Korea on Sunday in relation to a long-shuttered joint tourist project at a scenic North Korean mountain as relations between both the countries have been cool over a case of nuclear diplomacy. On Monday, South Korea sent a proposal seeking a meeting between officials of both the countries to talk about the project alongside North Korea's push to demolish South Korean facilities at the Diamond Mountain resort with a justification that they were shabby and not pleasant to look at. South Korean representative Lee Sang-min, however, said that his country had not given a set date and a location for the concerned meeting. 

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Earlier this week Kim Jong Un had ordered the destruction of the facilities after his visit to the resort. His comments were seen as a major set back to liberal South Korean President Moon Jae-in. According to an international media outlet, Kim said the buildings are just a hotchpotch with "no national character" at all and that they were built like makeshift tents in a disaster-stricken area or isolation wards. He said due to the mistaken policy of the predecessors who tried to get benefits without any efforts after just offering the tourist area, the mountain was left uncared for more than 10 years. He made a sharp criticism of the very wrong, dependent policy of the predecessors who were going to rely on others when the country was not strong enough.

(With AP inputs)

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