Seoul, Aug 21 (DPA) A delegation sent by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il arrived Friday in Seoul to pay respects to the late South Korean president Kim Dae Jung, who won the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to reconcile the two Koreas.

The visit was the first to South Korea by high-ranking North Korean functionaries since the inauguration of conservative South Korean President Lee Myung Bak in February last year.

The delegation, led by two top members of the ruling Korean Workers' Party, arrived at Kimpo International Airport in Seoul and were to be taken immediately to the National Assembly, where a memorial altar to Kim Dae Jung was erected, media reports said.

The former president, who was considered a democracy icon in South Korea and Asia and held the first North-South Korean summit with Kim Jong Il in 2000, died Tuesday of heart failure at the age of 83.