SEOUL, Jan. 31 (Yonhap) -- South Korea is unlikely to approve a move by a local civic group to contact North Koreans in China next month, citing inter-Korean tensions, a government official said Tuesday.
The South Korean Committee for the Joint Implementation of the June 15 Summit Declaration seeking to hold joint events requested the unification ministry last week approve its plan to meet with its North Korean counterparts in Shenyang on Feb. 7-8 to discuss ways to promote exchanges between the two Koreas.
The ministry said that it is not likely to give the green light at a time when North Korea has raised tensions with nuclear and missile provocations.
"It is not proper to seek such civilian contacts between the two Koreas, given the grave security situation," a ministry official said.
Seoul has suspended almost all inter-Korean exchanges and South Koreans' visits to North Korea since North Korea's fourth nuclear test in January last year.
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.
Despite Seoul's planned objection, the civic group said its officials plan to have unauthorized contact with North Koreans by attending a conference of the leaders of both sides' agencies to be held in China.
Topics for the meeting will include holding football matches for teams from the labor unions of the two countries and ways to promote inter-Korean civilian exchanges, the group said.
Related to the meeting, local North Korean observers said Pak Myong-chol, a former North Korean health minister, will take over from his predecessor Kim Wan-su as head of the North Korean committee tasked with following through on the June 15 declaration. Pak was probably appointed to his post late last year.
The joint declaration that outlines inter-Korean reconciliation was the outcome of a summit between former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, the late father of the current leader Kim Jong-un, which was held in Pyongyang on June 15, 2000.
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