Politicians who suffered at the hands of a para-military group funded by North Korea have said they have "no option but to welcome" the death of its strongman, Kim Jong Il.

However, President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party has described him as a lovely man.

Resentment for the dead North Korean leader follows his country's involvement in the training and equipping of a para-military group that allegedly killed more than 20 000 people in the early 1980s.

Mugabe in 1982 sought help from North Korea to train the infamous Fifth Brigade unit, which killed almost 20 000 people in the Midlands and Matabeleland regions in an operation code named Gukurahundi, meaning the first rains that wash the chaff.

The killings have since been described as genocide.

The two regions are occupied mainly by minority Ndebele speakers, who had at the time preferred to vote for Mugabe's former foe, Joshua Nkomo. Since then Mugabe's Zanu PF party finds it hard to win elections in these two areas.

Kim Jong-il, who was in charge of his country's military and referred to as the "Dear Leader" played an instrumental role in training the crack special killer unit that operated outside normal Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) command.

Didymus Mutasa, Zanu PF secretary for administration and one of Mugabe's closest loyalists said his party was "grateful" to Kim Jong-il for training the Zimbabwe military.

"He was not a dictator. He was a popular leader who was chosen by his people," he said.

Both Mugabe and Zanu PF "have nothing to be ashamed of" for associating with Kim Jong- iI, said Mutasa who described the Kim Jong-iI as "a lovely man whom we associated with."

Methuseli Moyo, spokesman for the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (Zapu), which was at the receiving end of the massacres said the party had "no option but to welcome" the demise of the dictator.

"We will not shed any crocodile tears for the trainer of Gukurahundi, the only problem about his death is that it was before he could account for his actions, we are not apologetic about that," he said.

Mugabe has refused to apologise for the killings although the Zimbabwean leader has described the crackdown as a "moment of madness."

In 2010, a pressure group - Ibetshu Likazulu which advocates for the compensation of Gukurahundi victims, blocked the North Korean soccer national team from setting up a training camp in Zimbabwe ahead of last year's football world cup tournament in South Africa.

The pressure group said it was ecstatic over Kim Jong Il's death.

"He trained soldiers that killed thousands of our people and he deserved nothing but death. We are celebrating the death of a murderer".