South Korean lawmakers to visit ancient palace site in North Korea next week

A group of South Korean lawmakers plans to visit North Korea's border city of Kaesong next week where a joint project to excavate an ancient palace is under way, the Yonhap news agency cited the Unification Ministry as saying on Friday.

A 58-member delegation composed of lawmakers on the foreign affairs and unification committee will make a one-day visit to the site of Manwoldae on Monday, said the ministry after approving the visit earlier in the day.

Any trip to the North requires the Seoul government's approval as well as the North's consent. The sides still technically remain in a state of war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

Since June, the two Koreas have been running a six-month project to excavate the site of Manwoldae, a Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) palace in Kaesong, which was registered as a world cultural heritage in 2013.

They also plan to visit a museum in Kaesong where around 100 artifacts uncovered from the site are on display, the ministry said.

It marks the first visit by South Korean lawmakers sitting on the committee since 2013 when a group of parliamentary members to the committee visited a joint industrial complex in Kaesong.

The Manwoldae project began in 2007, but suffered setbacks in 2011 amid drawn-out stand-offs between the two Koreas.

Source: MENA