S. Korean Pro-unification Group To Visit N. Korea This Week

SEOUL, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Jul, 2018 ) :Members of a pro-unification civil organization will visit North Kore to talk about reconciliation projects this week including joint efforts to bring home the remains of Korean victims of forced labor under Japan's colonial rule, its leader said Sunday.

Kim Hong-gul, head of the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation (KCRC) and the youngest son of late former President Kim Dae-jung, said in a statement that his delegation will enter the North on a flight from Beijing on Monday for a four-day visit.

The trip comes after relations between the two Koreas warmed significantly through two summit meetings between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as well as the summit between the North's leader and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Kim said he plans to discuss with North Korean officials a proposal to make joint efforts to bring home the remains of forced labor victims from Japan and other reconciliation projects.

Historians say millions of Koreans were mobilized into forced labor during Japan's colonial rule from 1910-1945. Kim has said the project may start with about 2,200 sets of remains that have been located around Japanese temples.

"For the past 10 years, civilian exchanges between the South and the North have been completely blocked. We couldn't go to Mt. Kumgang as the sea and land routes were blocked, and it's been more than three years since the sound of machine at the Kaesong Industrial Complex stopped," Kim said of the now-suspended tourism and joint industrial park projects.

"Fortunately, the South and the North are now working hard for denuclearization, peace and prosperity" through the inter-Korean and North Korea-U.S. summits, Kim said.

Kim said it won't be easy to address all issues in one meeting, but he will try to use the trip to the North to lay the groundwork for greater civilian exchanges between the two sides.