S.Korea offers condolences over death of N.Korean leader's aide

The South Korean government has offered condolences over the death of Kim Yang-Gon, North Korea's top official in handling affairs with the South.

North Korea's state media reported on Wednesday that Kim, the head of the United Front Department at the ruling Workers' Party, died in car accident early Tuesday Morning.

The South Korean government said its formal condolences were sent hours after the North Korean report on Kim's death in the name of Unification Minister Hong Yong-Pyo.

It is unusual for Seoul to immediately offer official condolences on the occasion of the death of senior North Korean officials.

Hong and Kim met in August when the two Koreas held a breakthrough high-level meeting aimed to ease heightened tensions triggered by a land mine blast near the inter-Korean border, which was blamed on the North.

Many North Korea watchers here say Kim's surprising death could lead to a protracted suspension of inter-Korean talks. Kim, the communist Pyongyang regime's point man in inter-Korean relations, was known as one of the North Korea's rare dialogue-seeking figures.