By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
The reigning Korean beauty queen crossed the heavily armed Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) to visit a North Korean city where a variety of inter-Korean economic cooperation projects are underway.
Lee Ji-seon, Miss Korea for 2007, visited the Gaeseong Industrial Complex Tuesday as a representative of South Korea's young people.
She crossed the inter-Korean border around 9:00 a.m. by bus to participate in a ceremony at the Gaeseong industrial site. The event was organized by the Korea Land Cooperation.
The 24-old beauty queen was accompanied by Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung, Park Jin, representative of the largest opposition Grand National Party and Hyun Jeong-eun, chairman of Hyundai Group.
``I joined the trip to the North with the aim of boosting awareness of the Gaeseong Industrial Complex among young people in South Korea,'' she said. ``While North Korean females were quite kind and friendly, males were somewhat rigid and blunt.''
Lee was crowned Miss Korea at the 51st Miss Korea Pageant held at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in July.
After winning the 2007 Miss Korea contest, Lee has participated in a variety of service activities here with other Korea beauties.
In 2000, Korean beauty queen finalists in the annual competition to discover the fairest of them all visited Mount Geumgang in North Korea.