SEOUL, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Leaders from South Korea's left-leaning labor party departed for North Korea Monday amid a probe of some of its members on spy charges.
During its five-day trip the 13-member delegation, headed by chairman Moon Sung-hyun of the Democratic Labor Party and several lawmakers, plans to meet the North's No. 2 leader, Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the legislative Supreme People's Assembly, party officials said.
The visit marks the first time South Korean politicians have met with North Korean leaders since the communist neighbor carried out a nuclear test on Oct. 9.
Moon said he would use the trip to call on North Korea to abandon its nuclear drive and restore inter-Korean ties soured by the North's nuclear and missile tests.
But the party is accused of involvement in a spy case. The party's Vice Secretary-General Choi Ki-young and four others, including a former member of the DLP's standing committee, are being investigated following suspicions of their involvement in a ring spying for the communist North and making unauthorized contacts with alleged North Korean agents.
