Senior aide to N. Korea's leader starts visit to Seoul - Yonhap
29/11/2007 10:43 SEOUL, November 29 (RIA Novosti) - A North Korean presidential aide has started a three-day visit to Seoul to discuss implementation of a peace and prosperity pact signed in mid-November, Yonhap news agency reported on Thursday.
Kim Yang-gon, 69, director of the United Front Department of the North's ruling Workers' Party and a close aide to President Kim Jong-il, was the only senior official to accompany the North Korean leader during his summit with President Roh Moo-hyun in early October.
At the October 2-4 summit, the leaders of the two Koreas signed a historic joint declaration pledging a commitment to peace talks and economic cooperation projects. The declaration was followed up when the two countries' premiers met in Seoul for talks in mid-November the first time since 1992.
According to Yonhap, a five-member delegation, headed by Kim Yang-gon, "will meet with a wide range of South Korean high-level officials and those involved in economic cooperation to discuss implementing the summit declaration."
However, the rare visit of a senior Pyongyang official raised suspicions in South Korean political circles that President Roh Moo-hyun and its liberal supporters were attempting to use inter-Korean peace agenda as a potential tool to undermine the conservative camp ahead of the December presidential election.
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