Lee Hee-ho, the widow of former President Kim Dae-jung, returned to Seoul on Saturday from a rare trip to North Korea but her hoped-for meeting with leader Kim Jong-Un failed to come off.
Kim Jong-un seemed to be signaling his lack of interest in better ties since he personally invited the 93-year-old former first lady to Pyongyang last December.
However, her aides said she had had no chance of seeing the young leader during the trip. Lee’s husband is best remembered for his “sunshine” policy of engagement with the isolated but nuclear-armed North that led to a historic summit between him and Kim Jong-Un’s late father Kim Jong-Il in 2000.
The fact that Lee chose to take the trip despite her advanced age was seen as her hope that she could help bring about a thaw in frozen inter-Korean relations. But Lee was not given a meeting with Kim Jong-un or Kim Yang-gon, the North Korean official in charge of inter-Korean relations.
“However, I made the trip with a view to dedicating to the spirit of the June 15 declaration,” she said in a statement on returning to Seoul, referring to an inter-Korean agreement for peace and reconciliation signed at the end of the landmark summit.
Ater arriving in Pyongyang, Lee had visited hospitals caring for children and young mothers. “Holding the hands of innocent, beaming children there, I deeply felt we should not pass the pain of the division of the motherland on to the next generations,” she said.
“I hope all the Korean people put their minds together to overcome divisions and achieve reunification through reconciliation, cooperation and love, as was declared in the June 15 declaration,” added the 93-year-old former first lady.
The “sunshine” policy was largely abandoned when a conservative administration took power in South Korea in 2008 and cross-border ties soured.
A series of nuclear and missile launches by the North in recent years as well as occasional military clashes have kept tensions high. Lee had visited the North three times before, the last trip being to pay respects during the funeral of Kim Jong-Il in December 2011.
At the time, she briefly met with Kim Jong-Un while he was receiving mourners.
