Ruling, oppositions parties celebrate 16th anniversary of inter-Korea summit

South Korea's ruling and opposition party officials gathered on Thursday to commemorate the 16th anniversary of the first summit between Seoul and Pyongyang, amid the prolonged deadlock in the inter-Korean relationship following the North's recent provocations.

   In the June 2000 summit, the leaders of the two Koreas produced a landmark joint declaration, which outlines reconciliation and economic cooperation. South and North Korea remain technically at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

   Lee Hee-ho, the widow of then-South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, also attended Thursday's event.

   The tension between the two Koreas, however, has been rising this year after Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test in January and the firing off of a long-range missile the following month. Seoul shut down the Kaesong Industrial Complex in the North's border city of the same name in February in response to the test. (Yonhap)