1,000 South Koreans to Travel to P'yang

1,000 South Koreans to Travel to P'yang

A large South Korean delegation that will witness the opening of a gymnasium in Pyongyang named after a southern business tycoon who pioneered inter-Korean economic projects will travel by bus to Pyongyang from Seoul on Oct. 6-9, Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun said on Thursday (Sept. 25).

¡°A 1,000-member South Korean delegation that will attend the opening ceremony of Hyundai-Asan¡¯s Chung Ju-yung Gymnasium will go to Pyongyang via the Gyeongui Line land route,¡± said the minister at a briefing.

This was agreed between the two Koreas first in August and was confirmed at working-level military contacts on Sept. 17, the minister added.

If all goes as planned, the public can expect to see a procession of buses traveling along the recently connected inter-Korean roadway linking the two capitals.

Travel on the new inter-Korean roads until now has been confined to special occasions such as talks over an industrial park to be built in Gaeseong and transportation of construction equipment.

The scene will provoke memories of June 1998 when Chung Ju-yung, the late Hyundai founder, led a procession of 500 cattle to Pyongyang via Panmunjeom as a prelude to inter-Korean reconciliation efforts that followed.

The unification minister said future applications for the newly linked inter-Korean roads, which haven¡¯t been fully paved yet, will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

In the meantime, Jeong added that North Korea indicated a willingness to hold an additional round of family reunions by year¡¯s end, an issue he expects to be dealt with at a 12th round of ministerial talks in Pyongyang.

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