S. Korean charity group to send large delegation to N. Korea

(ATTN: UPDATES with Seoul's approval and changed number of delegates in paras 2, 4, 6; ADDS exact number of groups hoping to visit NK and Seoul's position on future visits in para 9-12)
By Shim Sun-ah
SEOUL, Sept. 19 (Yonhap) -- A South Korean charity group said Friday it will send a large delegation to North Korea this weekend amid sensitive inter-Korean ties and the serious illness of the North's leader.

The Korean Sharing Movement said the 136-member delegation, which plans to visit
for four days, will be the largest South Korean group to visit the North since
early July.
Seoul has been discouraging large delegations from traveling to North Korea since
a South Korean tourist was killed at the North's Mount Geumgang resort in July,
which also prompted Seoul to halt the tours.
With approval both from Seoul and Pyongyang given just one day before its planned
departure, the group will fly into Pyongyang on Saturday using a direct air route
between the two Koreas over the West Sea, officials of the group said.
In addition to attending a ceremony to mark the completion of a medical center
and other related facilities that it helped build in the capital city, the group
will travel to Mount Paektu, near the border with China, officials said.
The delegates will also monitor the distribution of aid materials, they added.
Inter-Korean relations soured after the pro-U.S., conservative South Korean
President Lee Myung-bak took office in late February and vowed to take a firmer
stance on Pyongyang than his two predecessors. Relations became further strained
when a female tourist, Park Wang-ja, was fatally shot by a North Korean soldier
after she walked into an off-limits North Korean zone while vacationing in the
country's Mount Geumgang resort.
The North had asked another Seoul-based aid group to delay its visit to
Pyongyang, which was scheduled for this week, citing time constraints for
preparation. Peace 3000 said it had hoped to send a delegation of 110 people to
bean-processing plants built in Pyongyang with its assistance.
Seven more South Korean relief groups hope to visit North Korea within the coming
month. It remains to be seen whether Pyongyang will permit the other visits while
its reclusive leader is bedridden with health problems.
Seoul's Unification Ministry on North Korean affairs said it will continue to
positively respond to any request from civic groups to travel to the country to
for humanitarian aid purposes.
"The government basically has been positive to North Korea visits by civic groups
engaging in humanitarian aid and will be so in the future," Kim Ho-nyoun,
spokesman for the ministry, told reporters.
Rumors have circulated in South Korea and the rest of the world that North Korean
leader Kim Jong-il has been incapacitated. He has not been seen in public since
Aug. 14, when he reportedly inspected a military unit in the North.
His conspicuous absence last week from the country's parade celebrating the 60th
anniversary of its founding fueled speculation about his illness.
South Korea's intelligence agency and a key presidential official later said Kim
suffered a stroke in the middle of last month, but has recovered well enough to
brush his teeth by himself and stand if assisted. However, this has yet to be
officially verified.
sshim@yna.co.kr
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