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Ex-president’s widow plans to visit N. Korea in May

Posted April. 25, 2015 07:24,   

한국어

South Korean government reportedly allowed the late former President Kim Dae-jung’s widow, Lee Hee-ho, to visit North Korea at the end of May. Lee plans to arrange detailed schedules with North Korea from next week at the earliest.

“We’ve received an approval from the government for pre-contact with the North and proposed to have the second working-level meeting in Gaeseong in the North. As the ROK-U.S. joint Key Resolve military drill (that the North has protested) ended, the North would respond probably next week or in early May,” a Kim Dae-jung Peace Center insider said in a phone interview with the Dong-A Ilbo on Friday. “Accommodation and schedules were almost set and arranged during the first meeting in last September. What is left is to set the date."

The center plans to invite members of North Korea`s Asia-Pacific Peace Committee (KAPPC) to Seoul on May 9, and hold a ceremony to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the June 15 Declaration, a deal reached at the historic inter-Korean summit. The center will discuss who to invite at the working-level meeting prior to the ceremony.

During her visit to North Korea, the former first lady is pursuing to have a meeting with Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers` Party of North Korea. If the meeting is held, it may serve as a breakthrough in strained inter-Korean relationship. A source of the South Korean government expressed hope, saying, “This is the only card to meet with the North Korean supreme leader for now.”



jkim@donga.com