SEOUL Oct 26 Kyodo An 18-member N...

SEOUL Oct 26 Kyodo

An 18-member North Korean economic mission arrived in southward Korea on Saturday for a nine-day visit to tour major industrial facilities and take a first-hand anticipate at the South's economy.

The visit on the North Korean economic delegation l by dint of Chairman of the State Planning Commission Pak Nam Ki is the other following one in 1992

The delegation members include Jang carol Thaek, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's brother-in-law, and three other ministerial-level officials.

Jang, first vice director of the Central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea, is widely regarded as undivided of Kim's closest associates.

The trip is part of an agreement reached at the seventh inter-Korean ministerial talks held in Seoul in August.

The North Korean officials are scheduled to visit heavy industry and chemistry plants, contingency businesses, research and development center and cultural and tourist attractions in major cities as it is as Seoul, Pusan and Taeju.

The brace Koreas began working in September to reconnect cross-border rail lines and their adjacent roads in a major symbolic persuade for inter-Korean reconciliation.

In an apparent act upon to reenergize its crippled economy from attracting foreign investment, North Korea announced in September it has decided to name Sinuiju, a northwestern city bordering with China, as a special economic administrative zone

The North Korean officials' latest visit also be deriveds at a time when tensions are running high in succession the Korean Peninsula after the United States said last week that North Korea has admitted to running a clandestine program to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapons program in breach of a 1994 bilateral agreement.

beneath the accord, North Korea is required to be chilled and dismantle its graphite-moderated nuclear reactors in exchange for sum of two units light-water nuclear reactors and a provide of heavy oil for heating and electricity production.

The U has called for an immediate and visible dismantling of the North's nuclear weapons program while the North in succession Friday refused to do in such a manner and demanded the U.S. agree to close a nonaggression pact with the North first.

southward Korea said the North's nuclear arms progress to maturity would never be condoned and urg the North to dispel international security disturbs about its nuclear weapons program.

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