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SEOUL, June 26 (UPI) -- South Korea's former first lady is to visit Pyongyang in July and a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is likely, according to South Korea sources. Lee Hee-ho, the widow of erstwhile South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, made her plans public on Friday, according to news agency Yonhap, but her request to meet with the North's Kim has yet to receive a response from Pyongyang.
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Kim Sung-jae, an official at South Korea's Kim Dae-jung Peace Center, said North Korea has proposed a June 30 meeting in Kaesong, North Korea, to discuss details of Lee's upcoming trip.
The North Korean city is the site of a jointly operated factory park.
South Korean newspaper Donga Ilbo reported North Korea's Kim had extended a formal invitation to Lee for a visit last December.
The state of the 92-year-old Lee's health, however, twice delayed a visit that could have advanced North-South reconciliation, according to the spokesman at Kim Dae-jung Peace Center.
During his term of office, South Korea's Kim made a historical visit to Pyongyang in June 2000 and met with then-North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Together, they signed the June 15th North–South Joint Declaration that subsequently led to an increase in inter-Korea exchange for nearly a decade.
Seoul's Unification Ministry welcomed the announcement as a positive step forward in the civic exchange between North and South.
