Political maverick to go North

Representative Park Geun-hye, who last month launched a new political party, the Korean Coalition for the Future, reported Sunday that she will visit Pyeongyang on May 11-14.

Ms. Park, who recently resigned from the opposition Grand National Party, said she will visit Pyeongyang as an executive member of the European Union-Korea Foundation at the invitation of North Korea's Council for National Reconciliation, a civilian group. The foundation, which was organized last year, comprises 600 European diplomats and entrepreneurs in Korea.

Ms. Park said she is not sure whether she will meet North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il during her visit.

She said Jean-Jacques Grauhar, secretary general of the European Chamber of Commerce in Korea, is conducting talks to settle the scheduling details of her visit.

But her aides expressed confidence that she will meet Mr. Kim because it has been reported that he has much interest in the modernization program undertaken by Ms. Park's father, the former President Park Chung Hee.

Ms. Park's father, a strict anti-communist, was assassinated by his intelligence chief, and her mother, Yuk Young-soo, was killed by a North Korean agent. A meeting of Mr. Kim and Ms. Park could become a symbol of rapprochement between the two Koreas.

Ms. Park said the North invited the executives of the foundation to discuss North-South cooperation at the civilian level, including holding friendly matches between the two Koreas' youth soccer teams. The foundation sent 30,000 soccer balls to the North last year.

by Lee Sang-il