Seoul to lift ban on visits to N.K.

Seoul was set to lift the ban on South Korean aid groups` visits to the North, ending a two-month hiatus of trips for humanitarian purposes to North Korean regions other than Gaeseong and Mount Geumgang.

Seoul had banned virtually all South Korean visits to the North (other than the joint industrial park in Gaeseong and the dormant Mount Geumgang resort) since Pyongyang`s second nuclear test on May 25.

A ruling party legislator is expected to be one of the first South Koreans to set foot in Pyongyang since then.

Rep. Chung Eui-hwa of the Grand National Party said he was bound for Pyongyang today, along with other representatives of an aid group called the Korean Sharing Movement, including a pastor and a Buddhist monk.

Chung`s group is scheduled to fly to Pyongyang via Shenyang, China, to discuss medical aid plans including the construction of a hospital in the North Korean capital.



Chung reportedly said he received Pyongyang`s approval for the visit. The South Korean Unification Ministry was yet to give its own consent on Chung`s trip.

Unification Minister Hyun In-taek reiterated Seoul`s position that humanitarian aid to the North will continue regardless of military or security situations.

"The government will continue humanitarian aid (to the North)," the minister told reporters yesterday on a visit to a factory that employs defectors from the North in Paju, Gyeonggi Province.

"The government has been consistent on the issue of humanitarian aid; it was just briefly suspended due to (the North`s) long-range missile launch and nuclear test."

The expected lift of the travel ban comes amid a possible change of atmosphere between Pyongyang and Washington.

North Korean ambassador to the United Nations Sin Son-ho said last week that Pyongyang was "not against dialogue" with Washington.

Sin also confirmed that the North`s refusal to join the six-nation negotiations aimed at its denuclearization, saying "the six-party talks are gone forever."

Having boycotted the six-party talks since the United Nations Security Council denounced its April 5 rocket launch, the North is believed to be seeking bilateral talks with the United States.

The two sides still have different conditions for holding the talks, though.

Washington officially insists that the six-party framework is "the appropriate way" to deal with North Korean nuclear issues.

The international community, in the meanwhile, has yet to implement the United Nations Security Council sanctions against North Korea as punishment for its second nuclear test.

South Korea is among the countries complying with the sanctions.

(sophie@heraldm.com)



By Kim So-hyun