ID :
26841
Mon, 10/27/2008 - 12:52
Auther :
Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/26841
The shortlink copeid
S. Korea's labor party to visit Pyongyang next month
SEOUL, Oct. 27 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's ultra-progressive labor party will visit Pyongyang next month to discuss with its North Korean counterpart ways of thawing frozen inter-Korean ties, officials said Monday.
Seoul's Democratic Labor Party (DLP) had initially planned to visit the North
Korean capital in August, but was forbidden by the South Korean government, which
cited cooling public sentiment toward the North and circumstantial difficulties.
Tension has escalated between the divided countries after a North Korean soldier
shot dead a South Korean tourist in July at Mount Geumgang, a scenic South
Korean-run resort on the North's east coast.
The incident led to a suspension of the decade-old tour, a symbol of inter-Korean
reconciliation efforts, further chilling the ties between the conservative Lee
Myung-bak government and the Stalinist state.
The planned visit, which is the third since the party's establishment in 2000,
comes at the request of North Korea's Social Democratic Party, which invited the
DLP for the first time in 2005.
"About 25 legislators and party officials including Chairman Kang Ki-kab will
visit Pyongyang from Nov. 15 through Nov. 19," a party official said. "The
Unification Ministry is expected to give us permision this time."
Members of the two parties will mainly discuss implementation of the two stalled
inter-Korean deals struck under Seoul's former liberal administrations.
North Korea is eager to carry out the two pacts, which call for the expansion of
economic cooperation between the two countries, but the Lee government has been
linking their implementation with Pyongyang's denuclearization.
The DLP, controlling five seats in the 299-member unicameral house, has often
been accused by Seoul's conservatives of pro-North Korea espionage, with two
leading party members being arrested on espionage charges in 2005. Both the party
and the North called the arrests a "plot by pro-U.S. forces."
The DLP is largely composed of former and current activists that led South
Korea's student, labor and other social movements in past decades.
The two Koreas, divided and technically still at war, are both members of the
six-party nuclear disarmament talks, aimed at denuclearizing the North in return
for economic aid.
hayney@yna.co.k
Seoul's Democratic Labor Party (DLP) had initially planned to visit the North
Korean capital in August, but was forbidden by the South Korean government, which
cited cooling public sentiment toward the North and circumstantial difficulties.
Tension has escalated between the divided countries after a North Korean soldier
shot dead a South Korean tourist in July at Mount Geumgang, a scenic South
Korean-run resort on the North's east coast.
The incident led to a suspension of the decade-old tour, a symbol of inter-Korean
reconciliation efforts, further chilling the ties between the conservative Lee
Myung-bak government and the Stalinist state.
The planned visit, which is the third since the party's establishment in 2000,
comes at the request of North Korea's Social Democratic Party, which invited the
DLP for the first time in 2005.
"About 25 legislators and party officials including Chairman Kang Ki-kab will
visit Pyongyang from Nov. 15 through Nov. 19," a party official said. "The
Unification Ministry is expected to give us permision this time."
Members of the two parties will mainly discuss implementation of the two stalled
inter-Korean deals struck under Seoul's former liberal administrations.
North Korea is eager to carry out the two pacts, which call for the expansion of
economic cooperation between the two countries, but the Lee government has been
linking their implementation with Pyongyang's denuclearization.
The DLP, controlling five seats in the 299-member unicameral house, has often
been accused by Seoul's conservatives of pro-North Korea espionage, with two
leading party members being arrested on espionage charges in 2005. Both the party
and the North called the arrests a "plot by pro-U.S. forces."
The DLP is largely composed of former and current activists that led South
Korea's student, labor and other social movements in past decades.
The two Koreas, divided and technically still at war, are both members of the
six-party nuclear disarmament talks, aimed at denuclearizing the North in return
for economic aid.
hayney@yna.co.k
