Seoul allows first religious visit to N. Korea since deadly attacks: source

SEOUL, Sept. 2 (Yonhap) -- The government will allow some 30 people from South Korea's largest Buddhist sect to visit North Korea this week, a government source said Friday, the first religious trip to the communist nation since its deadly attacks on the South last year.
Venerable Jaseung, the head of the Jogye Order, and about 30 other members of the sect plan to visit a North Korean temple on Saturday for a Buddhist service with their North Korean counterparts, the source said on the condition of anonymity.
South Korea has strictly restricted its people from traveling to the North after 46 of its sailors died in the March 2010 sinking of the warship Cheonan, blamed on Pyongyang. Inter-Korean relations plunged further when the North shelled the South Korean front-line island of Yeonpyeong last November, killing four.
hague@yna.co.kr