A 40-member official delegation headed by Unification Minister Chung Dong-young and a 300-hundred member civilian delegation will leave for Pyongyang on Tuesday to attend the four-day June 15 Grand Festival for National Reunification. The “festival” the severely diminished South Korean contingent is attending marks the fifth anniversary of the June 15 Joint Declaration that started an uneasy thaw between the two Koreas.

The unification minister reportedly met with President Roh Moo-hyun on Monday to make a final report on what he will discuss with the North Koreans during his trip. While in Pyongyang, Chung will meet with Kim Yong-nam, president of the Presidium of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly, and Prime Minister Pak Pong-ju. It remains to be seen if he will brief them on Roh’s meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush over the weekend and urge them to return to six-party talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear program.

Roh on Monday told a conference marking the Joint Declaration on this side of the DMZ that making good on promises was the most important thing in the inter-Korean relationship. The only promise made in the Joint Declaration that remains unfulfilled is a visit to Seoul by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

Roh said it was undeniably difficult to expect great strides in the relationship while the nuclear dispute remains unresolved. “But dialogue must continue… and inter-Korean dialogue must contribute to resolving the nuclear issue,” he said.

(englishnews@chosun.com )