The widow of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung has postponed her visit to North Korea to next spring due to concerns about her health, an aide said Sunday.

Earlier this month, North Korea agreed to allow former first lady Lee Hee-ho to visit the communist country at an unspecified date.

Lee, 92, expressed her wish to travel to the North for humanitarian purposes during a meeting with South Korean President Park Geun-hye in late October.

"(Lee) wanted to go, but doctors advised her to go next spring when the weather is warmer, and after much thought, she made up her mind," Kim Sung-jae, a former culture minister and member of the Kim Dae Jung Peace Center, told Yonhap News Agency by phone. "We plan to inform the North tomorrow morning."

He also denied speculation that the visit was delayed in order to avoid the third anniversary of former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's death on Dec. 17.

Lee, who plans to visit two day care centers in Pyongyang, would be making her second trip to the North in three years. She made her last trip to Pyongyang to attend the former North Korean leader's funeral. At that time, she met with the current leader, Kim Jong-un.

She also accompanied her husband to the North in 2000 for the historic inter-Korean summit talks.

Lee would become the highest-profile South Korean figure to visit North Korea in recent months, with government-level dialogue suspended amid prolonged military tensions.

The North has threatened to conduct another nuclear test in anger over a U.N. resolution calling for the referral of the communist nation's leaders to the International Criminal Court for their human rights violations. (Yonhap)