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Members of South Korea's progressive Democratic Labor Party including chairman Moon Sung-hyun arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday. They attended a welcoming banquet organized by the Korean Social Democratic Party, who had invited them to the North.
Moon said in his arrival speech the Korean Peninsula faces serious challenges. ¡°The U.S. and Japan have constantly made provocative speeches suggesting they can start a war any time to ensure their hegemony,¡± he said. ¡°We are deeply frustrated by tension and conflicts surrounding North Korea's nuclear test.¡± He said the DLP delegation came to Pyongyang ¡°to foster peace.¡± ¡°We came the long way round via China to meet our families on the other side of the nation, which has been divided due to external circumstances, and we are overwhelmed with joy and our hearts pound as we arrive in Pyongyang.¡±
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Members of civic groups including Action Campaign for Freedom and Democracy in Korea protest in front of the Democratic Labor Party building in Yeouido, Seoul on Tuesday against a Pyongyang visit by party leaders.
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The DLP delegation will meet North Korea's No. 2 leader Kim Yong-nam, the president of the Presidium of the Supreme People¡¯s Assembly, on Friday. The delegation said it will not visit any sensitive places the South Korean government asked them to avoid. They include the Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery, built in 1975 and home to the graves of 140 members of the so-called "first generation of the revolution," among them Kim Jong-suk, the mother of Kim Jong-il, and Kim Chaek, or the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, where Kim Il-sung¡¯s embalmed corpse is displayed.
A South Korean government official said it cannot be ruled out that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il will meet the DLP members as a ¡°gift¡± for visiting Pyongyang at this tense time. If Kim meets them, he will try to water down expected criticism in South Korea after the DLP members return by expressing a more positive stance on rejoining six-party talks on its nuclear program or refraining from a second nuclear test, pundits said. The last DLP delegation that visited North Korea last August, which also included then party chairman Kim Hye-gyung, only met Kim Young-nam.
Dr. Lee Ki-dong from the Research Institute for International Affairs (RIIA) said, however, it is unlikely the delegation will meet Kim Jong-il, going by past examples. Prof. Kim Geun-sik of Kyungnam University said Kim Young-nam is likely to tell delegates the North has no intention to perform an additional nuclear test and to promote cooperation between the two Koreas.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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