PYONGYANG, North Korea, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- North Korea says South Korea must "show proper respect" over the death of its leader Kim Jong Il, saying the country's dignity had been insulted.
South Korea's decision to express sympathy for the North Korean people but not send a government delegation to Kim's funeral next week was "an unbearable insult and mockery of our dignity," the statement on North Korea's official Web site said.
The death of Kim, considered by many North Koreans a national patriarch but seen by the rest of the world as a ruthless dictator, is creating thorny questions of protocol, The New York Times reported.
North Korea said it will open its border with the South to accept all condolence delegations both private and governmental, and warned the South against blocking such trips.
"The South's authorities must think about the grave impact its actions will have on North-South relations," the North Korean statement warned. "Depending on what it does, the relations can thaw or completely derail."
South Korea's Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik said the South had no plans to change its decision against sending an official delegation.
"We can't respond to everything they say," he said.
