The funeral today of former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung, whose efforts to reconcile the divided peninsula won him the Nobel Peace Prize, was marked by the rival Koreas' first top level talks in nearly two years.
Mr Kim, who died on Tuesday aged 85, was a driving force in South Korea's shift to democracy and initiated the "Sunshine Policy" to try to coax the North out of its shell, leading in 2000 to the first ever summit of the two Korean leaders.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il sent a delegation to the South to join the mourning for the former president and, with them, a message to South Korea's current President Lee Myung-bak, whose 18 months in office have seen a sharp deterioration in relations between the two.
The delegation, headed by a top aide to Mr Kim, met Mr Lee in the latest sign the impoverished North is softening its tone after a nuclear test in May and missile launches were met with tightened UN sanctions and further international isolation.
The South's presidential Blue House said the meeting lasted about 30 minutes but would not disclose the content of the message to Mr Lee, routinely derided in communist North Korea's media as a traitor and a pawn of the United States.
The North, furious at Mr Lee's policy of ending aid until Pyongyang starts to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme, has all but cut ties with its far wealthier neighbour.
"President Lee said, if South and North Korea solve problems through dialogue and in a sincere manner, there is nothing we cannot resolve," presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said. "The North delegation expressed its gratitude for allowing the meeting and suggests both sides can cooperate and resolve (problems).”
North Korea's KCNA news agency announced the return of the delegation without comment. It had arrived in Seoul on Friday and was the North's first to the South in nearly two years. They flew home just before the state funeral.
Yonhap news agency said about 20,000 mourners, the largest number the country has seen for a funeral, gathered in the grounds of the National Assembly to mark the death of the man who was a towering figure in the fight to bring democracy to what is now Asia's fourth largest economy.
Kim Dae-jung, popularly referred to by his initials "DJ", spent much of his political life behind bars or under house arrest. He was once sentenced to death and the target of a number of assassination attempts. Growing up in poverty on a small island called Hawi to an unwed mother, he took a job after high school to support his family.
As the military rule in South Korea tightened, Mr Kim emerged as a young leader of dissidents in parliament. He challenged Major-General Park Chung-hee for the presidency in 1971, and won over 46 per cent of the vote in an election widely criticised as rigged in favour of Park.
Two years after his run for the presidency, he was abducted by South Korean secret agents in a Tokyo hotel in 1973.
Abroad, he is best remembered for the hugs and smiles he exchanged in Pyongyang with Kim Jong-il at the summit he brokered in 2000 - the first by leaders of the two Koreas and which led to a quick warming of ties.
Today's meeting is the latest in a recent series of conciliatory gestures by the North, suggesting it is ready to re-engage with the outside world after months of military grandstanding and threats.
But analysts note the North has a history of unpredictable changes of tack in its relations with the outside world. Few believe it is ready to give up nuclear weapons - the one thing that gives it leverage and the threat of which has won it repeated concessions in the past.
The latest moves also coincide with reports North Korea's already ravaged economy, always on the edge of famine, may be heading into deeper difficulties from a combination of international sanctions and a poor harvest.
Reuters