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North Korea has demanded that official South Korean delegations to the North are allowed to visit the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, where former leader Kim Il-sung lies embalmed. The call came at the 17th inter-Korean ministerial talks in Jeju Island on Wednesday.
Kim Chon-sik, the South Korean delegation¡¯s spokesman, said North Korea in a keynote speech called for an end to a de-facto South Korean ban on official visits to some politically sensitive places in the North. The North Koreans complained Seoul was not responding in kind after a North Korean delegation visited Seoul¡¯s National Cemetery during Independence Day celebrations this year, he said.
Some such demand had been on the horizon ever since the North Korean representatives visited the National Cemetery on Aug. 15. Although members of the progressive minor opposition Democratic Labor Party and some private tourists visited Pyongyang¡¯s Patriots¡¯ Cemetery, no South Korean officials have visited such sensitive locations.
At Wednesday¡¯s meeting, the North and South agreed to hold both a 13th round of reunions of families separated by the Korean War and an inter-Korean Red Cross meeting in Mt. Kumgang in March. But North Korea would not be pinned down on a date for either resumption of six-party talks on its nuclear program or top-level inter-Korean military talks.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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