South Korea's top official on relations with the North arrived in Pyongyang yesterday to join celebrations of the fifth anniversary of the only summit between leaders of the two Koreas amid tension over the North's nuclear weapons ambitions.
Unification Minister Chung Dong-young was expected to press the North to return to nuclear disarmament talks that have been stalled for nearly a year.
Chung heads a government delegation from Seoul to festivities marking the June 2000 summit between North Korea's Kim Jong-il and then-South Korean president Kim Dae-jung.
PHOTO: AP
Chung is to meet tomorrow with Kim Yong-nam, the North's ceremonial head of state. He said nothing had yet been decided about a possible meeting during his four-day visit with Kim Jong-il.
"I hope the day will come when going back and forth between Seoul and Pyongyang will no longer be a special thing," Chung said before his departure, which was delayed for about two hours due to bad weather.
Chung joins a civic delegation of 295 South Koreans who arrived earlier yesterday with members of labor unions, religious and agricultural groups and politicians.
"The conflict between the North and the United States has deepened over the North's latest nuclear problem ... and there is a growing sense of a crisis that it will develop into an extreme situation no one wants," the delegation said in a statement before leaving Seoul.
This year's celebrations "will put an end to the history of disintegration and confrontation ... and show to the world our peoples' joint will to preserve peace in whatever situation," the delegation said.
The North's main state-run Rodong Sinmun daily also heralded the upcoming celebrations that "reflect our peoples' goals and will to open a new chapter of cooperation," according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency.
However, in a veiled reference to tensions between the Koreas, the paper noted difficulties in staging the celebrations due to "obstacles by anti-unification forces both at home and abroad."
The South was forced to cut its delegation in half after the North went back on agreements reached at inter-Korean talks last month -- the first such contact in 10 months.
The South Koreans were to join a march through Pyongyang ahead of opening ceremonies for the anniversary celebration last night at Kim Il-sung Stadium.
A delegation from Hyundai conglomerate, including chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun, has also arrived in Pyongyang for the celebration, KCNA said. The company has various economic projects in the North.
Since the 2000 meeting, some 10,000 relatives separated by the heavily armed border have held brief reunions and the two Koreas are working together at an industrial park just inside the North.
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