SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea urged South Korea on Friday to “show proper respect” over the death of its leader, Kim Jong-il, calling the South’s decision to express sympathy for the North Korean people but not to send a government delegation to Mr. Kim’s funeral next week “an unbearable insult and mockery of our dignity.”

The statement, carried on the official Web site of the North, Uriminzokkiri.com, was the new leadership’s first comment on a South Korean policy since it announced on Monday that Mr. Kim had died of a heart attack last Saturday.

Mr. Kim’s death and the inexperience of his son and heir, Kim Jong-un, have raised anxieties in the region over where North Korea is headed and how neighbors should deal with it. The death of the man regarded by many North Koreans as a patriarch but by the rest of the world as a ruthless dictator is also creating delicate questions of protocol.

“The South’s authorities must think about the grave impact its actions will have on North-South relations,” the North Korean statement said. “Depending on what it does, the relations can thaw or completely derail.”