Hyundai head, DJ aides request trip to Kaesong

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Hyundai head, DJ aides request trip to Kaesong

The chairwoman of Hyundai Group and key aides to the late President Kim Dae-jung have asked the South Korean government to allow them to visit North Korea, a government official said Monday.

“Following the North’s invitation, the Kim Dae-jung Peace Center and Hyundai Asan have requested that their representatives [be allowed] to visit the Kaesong Industrial Complex on Wednesday,” said an official from the Ministry of Unification. “We will make a decision on Tuesday.”

According to the official, Rep. Park Jie-won, a member of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD), and former Culture Minister Kim Sung-jae applied for a trip to North Korea through the Kim Dae-jung Peace Center.

Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jung-eun and Hyundai Asan President Cho Kun-shik also asked Seoul for permission to visit Kaesong.

Hyundai Asan, the North Korean business arm of Hyundai Group, has invested in major projects in the Communist country, including the suspended Mount Kumgang tour program. It is also a developer of the Kaesong Industrial Complex.

After Lee Hee-ho, the widow to the late President Kim Dae-jung, and Hyundai Chairwoman Hyun sent flowers to the memorial marking the third anniversary of the death of Kim Jong-il, the North’s former ruler and the father of the regime’s current leader Kim Jong-un, Pyongyang said it would like to express its appreciation by inviting the South Koreans to Kaesong.

The North’s Asia-Pacific Peace Committee sent the invitation to the South on Friday through the Panmunjom truce village. The committee is headed by Kim Yang-gon, a secretary for the Workers’ Party in charge of South Korean affairs.

BY SER MYO-JA [myoja@joongang.co.kr]




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