S. Korean religious leaders to make joint trip to North Wednesday

(ATTN: UPDATES with detailed schedules in paras 5-7) SEOUL, Sept. 19 (Yonhap) -- South Korean religious leaders will make a rare joint trip to North Korea this week with permission from the Seoul government, the Unification Ministry said Monday. The 24-member delegation representing the country's seven largest religious groups, including Roman Catholics, Protestants and Buddhists, will fly into Pyongyang via the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang on Wednesday, the ministry said. While staying in Pyongyang for four days, the religious chiefs and their staffers are scheduled to meet with their North Korean counterparts in such places as Pyongyang and Mount Paekdu bordering China, according to the ministry. "The government allowed the religious leaders' trip in consideration of their contribution to inter-Korean exchanges and aspiration for peace on the Korean Peninsula," a ministry official in charge of the permission said. The delegation will visit North Korea's religious facilities and attend an inter-Korean meeting of religious leaders "for cross-border reconciliation, unity and peaceful reunification" on Thursday, according to the Korean Conference of Religion for Peace (KCRP), a local organization representing the seven religious groups. On Friday, religious leaders of the two Koreas will hold a joint prayer meeting on Mount Paekdu, the KCRP said. The South Korean delegation will make a press statement before its departure from Incheon International Airport Wednesday morning, it added. Experts say the rare visit by South Korea's religious chiefs will serve a role in easing high tension between the two Koreas. Despite denial by the KCRP, some have raised the possibility that the leaders may meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during the visit. The visit is the latest in a series of visits to North Korea by South Korean cultural and religious officials. South Korean orchestra conductor Chung Myung-whun returned to Seoul on Thursday from a trip to North Korea in which he signed a letter of intent with North Korean musicians to push for regular joint performances of an inter-Korean symphony orchestra. Earlier this month, the Unification Ministry also allowed officials from South Korea's largest Buddhist sect to visit the North, the first religious trip since ties fell to the lowest level in decades after the North's two deadly attacks on the South last year. Meanwhile, Yu Woo-ik, who assumed his post as unification minister earlier on Monday, is scheduled to hold a dinner meeting with the seven religious chiefs at a Seoul hotel.