The chairwoman of South Korea's Hyundai Group will leave for North Korea Monday to discuss the release of an employee detained since March by the communist state, AFP reported Monday, quoting a spokesman.
There is growing media speculation the North may free the worker, identified only as Yu, after it pardoned two U.S. journalists during former President Bill Clinton's visit to Pyongyang last week, according to AFP.
Group Chairwoman Hyun Jung-eun will discuss the detainee's release, the resumption of tours to the North and ways to put inter-Korean business back on track, a spokesman for Hyundai Asan, a group subsidiary which manages its businesses in the North, was quoted as saying.
She is expected to return Wednesday.
The spokesman told AFP there are no plans at present for her to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, as she did during a Pyongyang visit in 2007.
The North's ties with the South have been icy for the past 18 months, and regional tensions are high following its rocket launch in April and nuclear test in May.
But Clinton held three-and-a-half hours of talks with Kim during his surprise visit to secure the release of the reporters detained in March along the border with China.