US Lawmakers Visit NK
2003-05-30
Washington - A group of six U.S. lawmakers will visit North Korea on Friday at the North's invitation amid the continuing standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program, the Yonhap News Agency reported on May 29.
An aide to Rep. Curt Weldon, the delegation's leader, said in a telephone interview with Yonhap News Agency that the lawmakers will leave Washington aboard a military aircraft and make a brief stopover at a U.S. military base in Japan before entering the North.
The State Department has confirmed the lawmakers' visit.
The six are the first U.S. officials to visit Pyongyang since the nuclear crisis began last October with the revelation that the North had been operating a clandestine nuclear weapons program.
The other members of the delegation are Reps. Joe Wilson, Jeff Miller, Eliot Engel, Silvestre Reyes and Solomon Ortiz.
In Pyongyang, the lawmakers will meet with Kim Yong-nam, president of the North's Supreme People's Assembly, and other high-level officials. However, a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has not been scheduled, Weldon's aide said.
After wrapping up their trip in Pyongyang, the delegation is likely to visit Seoul, probably on Sunday.
Source : www.korea.net
