Aides to late former President Kim Dae-jung visited North Korea on Tuesday for talks on a proposed trip there by Kim's widow but returned home without finalizing a specific date.
Lee Hee-ho, who was the South's first lady during Kim's five-year tenure till 2003, is seeking to visit the communist nation as early as next month for humanitarian purposes, a move that may help ease tension on the divided peninsula.
Five representatives from the Kim Dae-jung Peace Center returned home in the afternoon after visiting the North's border city of Kaesong to discuss the logistics and other details of Lee's trip, according to the center.
Kim Sung-jae, a former culture minister, said that as the two sides have not set a specific date for Lee's visit, they've agreed to have additional talks for fine-tuning her itinerary.
"We delivered to the North the ex-first lady's hope to visit the North in July," Kim, an official at the center, told reporters at a checkpoint near the inter-Korean border. "The two sides have decided to meet again and discuss specifics over the visit."
Lee, 93, voiced hope Monday that "the move could pave the way for alleviating tension in the Seoul-Pyongyang relations."
If her visit is realized, it is widely expected to help improve the strained inter-Korean ties amid prospects that she may meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, experts said.
The move comes as North Korea has intensified its verbal attacks against South Korea following the United Nations' establishment of a field office tasked with monitoring the North's dismal human rights situation. Pyongyang has said Seoul will face catastrophic fallout in inter-Korean ties due to the office opening.
Lee's late husband was the architect of the "sunshine" policy that actively pushed cross-border exchanges and reconciliation. He held the first inter-Korean summit with then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2000.
Lee expressed her wish to visit the North last October, hoping that she could deliver knit hats, scarves and clothes to North Korean children. But she had to postpone her trip due to cold winter weather even as Pyongyang accepted her request.
She sent a wreath of flowers in December last year to the North to mark the third anniversary of the death of the current leader's father, Kim Jong-il. In response, the North's young leader said in a letter that he was "looking forward to having Lee in Pyongyang once the weather got warmer in 2015."
In April, the peace center made a request for a prior contact over Lee's visit, but the North rejected it, citing "complex inter-Korean circumstances."
Any trip by South Koreans to North Korea requires the South Korean government's approval along with the North's consent. The two remain technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
In May, South Korea said it will encourage civilian groups to boost inter-Korean exchanges in such areas as culture, sports and history if they help restore national unity and open channels for cooperation.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule and the division of the two Koreas. (Yonhap)
