South Korea expressed concern Tuesday over a planned trip to North Korea by three Nobel laureates, saying the communist regime may use the visit for "political purposes."

On Monday, the Washington-based Voice of America reported that Britain's Richard Roberts, Norway's Finn Kydland and Israel's Aaron Ciechanover will visit the North from April 30 to May 6 to speak at some of the country's top universities.

The visit, organized by the Vienna-based International Peace Foundation, is expected to include a welcoming banquet in Pyongyang.

"Our government plans to deliver our position to the International Peace Foundation that should the visit be realized, there are concerns that the North may use it for political purposes," Cho June-hyuck, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said during a regular press briefing.

"Our government plans to closely follow (the laureates') activities in North Korea and the possibility they might be used for North Korea's propaganda after the visit," he added.

North Korea is known for conducting extensive propaganda campaigns to prop up the father-to-son power succession from Kim to his grandson and current leader Kim Jong-un.

Roberts won the 1993 Nobel prize for physiology and medicine, while Kydland won the prize for economics in 2004 and Ciechanover for chemistry in 2004. (Yonhap)