Former 1st lady seeks to visit North Korea
By Lee Min-hyung
Lee Hee-ho
A group of aides to former first lady Lee Hee-ho will meet North Korean officials today at Gaeseong in the North to discuss her possible visit to Pyongyang.
Late last month, the widow of former President Kim Dae-jung expressed her desire to visit the reclusive nation to provide humanitarian aid for North Korean children. President Park Geun-hye voiced support for Lee’s plan.
Five officials from the Kim Dae Jung Peace Center and the Friends of Love, an organization seeking to save starving children in Korea, will visit Gaeseong with two drivers, according to the South’s unification ministry.
They will consult with officials from the North’s Asia-Pacific Peace Committee on setting a date for Lee’s visit.
Both sides are expected to discuss a detailed schedule for her during working-level talks.
The dialogue comes two days after the United Nations adopted a resolution on North Korea’s human rights situation.
It has triggered strong opposition from Pyongyang, which threatened to bolster its “war deterrence,” the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted its foreign ministry spokesman as saying Thursday.
Lee’s visit to the North is widely expected to provide momentum to improve the icy relations between the two Koreas.
Lee, 92, visited Pyongyang in December 2011 to attend the funeral of the North’s late dictator Kim Jong-il. At that time, Kim Jong-un expressed huge gratitude for her visit.
Even after her late husband died in August 2009, she did not stop devoting herself to delivering humanitarian assistance to starving North Koreans.
During the upcoming visit, she said she wants to give them woolen hats and mufflers that she knitted herself.
The late President Kim Dae-jung won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for fighting for Korea’s democracy and contributing to bringing peace to the Korean Peninsula.
With his “Sunshine Policy” of reconciliation, he made a huge commitment to improving inter-Korean relations. Kim and then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il signed the South-North Joint Declaration in June 2000.
The declaration outlined economic cooperation and the handling of humanitarian issues between the two Koreas.