Cattle to Accompany Delegation to P'yang
2003-10-06
A hundred head of cattle will accompany the 1,110-member South Korean delegation as they leave for Pyeongyang on Monday (Oct. 6) to participate in the opening ceremony of a multi-purpose indoor gymnasium built by Hyundai Asan and North Korea.
According to the North Korean tour organizer Hyundai Asan on Sunday, it has delivered 100 cattle to the South Korean National Red Cross to be donated to the North.
The donors include Hyundai Engineering and Construction and Hyundai Motor.
This will be Hyundai fourth donation of cattle to the North since June 1998, when late Hyundai founder Chung Ju-yung visited the North to deliver a herd of 501 cattle.
Hyundai donated 500 more cattle in October 1998 and another 500 in August 2000 via the truce village of Panmunjeom.
Hyundai Asan has also unveiled the list of dignitaries to visit Pyongyang. They include Rep. Kim Ok-doo of the Millennium Democratic Party, Rep. Lee Yoon-sung of the Grand National Party, Korea Sports Council and Korean Olympic Committee president Lee Yun-taek and Korea Federation of Small & Medium Business chairman Kim Young-soo.
Hyun Jung-eun, widow of the late Chung Mong-hun, the former Hyundai Asan chairman who committed suicide in August, will also join the group.
However, Chung Ju-yung's sons, including Hyundai Motor Group chairman Chung Mong-koo and Rep. Chung Mong-joon, will not attend the opening ceremony, it added.
The bus tour marks the first South Korean tour to Pyongyang via the Gyeongui land route in the 50 years since the division of the Korean Peninsula.
Nearly 11,500 North Koreans, including North Korea's Asia-Pacific Peace Committee officials, a cheering squad and about 10,000 Pyongyang residents, will take part in the opening ceremony, which will be held from 5:30 p.m.
The ceremony, featuring entertainers and performing artists from both sides of the Demilitarized Zone, will be broadcast live on television by Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS).
The opening of the 12,309-seat indoor gymnasium, which boasts a total floor area of 8,261 pyong, or 27,261 square meters, marks the first inter-Korean enterprise involving South Korean capital and North Korean labor in Pyongyang.
Hyundai Asan and its sister companies began construction of the gymnasium in July 2000 and completed it last May. But due to unfavorable relations between Pyongyang and Washington, the opening ceremony was put off.
Hyundai Asan also plans to arrange another bus tour to the Ryukyung Chung Ju-yung Gymnasium later this year.
Source : www.korea.net
