North Korean officials who recently held an information session in Japan on the Arirang Festival scheduled in Pyongyang from April 29 to June 29, expressed their hopes to open air routes between Seoul and Pyongyang and between Beijing and Seoul via Pyongyang, to attract foreign tourists during the festival and the World Cup, a government source said Sunday.

The government official said that after the presentation sessions from February 27 to March 1, North Korean tourism authorities said that if Seoul and Pyongyang make an agreement, they hope to operate some ten services daily connecting Seoul and Pyongyang to transport South Korean tourists during the festival.

Also, the officials said that Beijing-Pyongyang-Seoul route can be operated some ten times a day for Chinese tourists visiting Seoul during the World Cup, while showing a skeptical standpoint for the possibility of an overland route between the North and the South, the source continued.

However, Seoul translates this as a personal opinion of the tourism authorities, and official negotiations have not been made on the issue, nor has Pyongyang officially delivered its position.

(Park Du-sik, dspark@chosun.com )