North Korea urges South to pay its respects at Kim Jong-il funeral

Japanese celebrity magician who performed in Pyongyang at Kim Jong-il's request could be among few non-Koreans to attend.

As North Korea prepares for the funeral of Kim Jong-il, the guest list is generating enough speculation to match The Tempest for Shakespearean intrigue.

According to the state media, the government has not invited foreign dignitaries, but has encouraged South Koreans to pay their respects at the ceremony in Pyongyang next Wednesday.

The government in Seoul does not plan to send a delegation and has imposed a travel ban on ordinary citizens, but it has authorised a select group of people to attend. Among them is Lee Hee-ho, the wife of the former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung, whose "sunshine policy" of engagement in the late 1990s has given way to frostier ties under the current president, Lee Myung-bak. The South says it will allow her to attend, given that the North sent representatives to her husband's funeral in 2009.

Accompanying her from Seoul will be Hyun Jeong-eun, chairwoman of the Hyundai group, a major investor in the North. Some expect her to use the opportunity to discuss North Korea's seizure of Hyundai assets at Mount Kumgang, a North-South operated resort, earlier this year. Read More