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South Korea has approved a rare visit to the North by the head of Seoul’s Hyundai Group following an invitation from Pyongyang, an official said Wednesday, raising hopes for improving business ties as a diplomatic rapprochement takes hold.
Hyun Jung-eun will visit the North’s scenic Mount Kumgang on Friday to mark the death anniversary of her late husband and former group chairman Chung Mong-hun, Seoul’s unification ministry said.
“We approved the trip on humanitarian grounds as it is an annual commemoration event for the death anniversary,” a ministry spokeswoman said.
The trip, if realized, will be the first visit to the country by Hyun since 2014. The Hyundai chairwoman met with late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il several times and was the among the first South Koreans to meet his son and current leader Kim Jong-un after he assumed power.
The group’s founder, Chung Ju-yung, championed closer ties with Pyongyang, pioneering many inter-Korea business projects including the now-closed jointly-run Kaesong industrial complex in the North.
Hyundai also poured hundreds of millions of dollars into a tourist resort at Mount Kumgang, just north of the tense border, and operated tours for South Korean visitors in an effort to promote inter-Korea ties.
But the projects suffered crippling blows as inter-Korea ties worsened and tensions rose over Pyongyang’s banned nuclear programme.
Seoul suspended all tours to Mount Kumgang in 2008 when a North Korean soldier shot dead a South Korean woman there.
The Kaesong complex was shuttered eight years later at the order of former South Korean President Park Geun-Hye, known for her hawkish stance toward the isolated North.
Park’s successor, Moon Jae-in, vowed to strengthen cross-border economic cooperation by establishing railway and roadway links connecting the two countries at a landmark summit with Kim in April. (AFP)
