国际英语新闻:DPRK high-level visit to Incheon Asiad signals readiness for dialogue

PYONGYANG, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- A delegation of high-ranking officials of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), including its second-in-command Hwang Pyong So, made a surprise trip to South Korea for the closing ceremony of the Incheon Asian Games Saturday.

The visit, which also includes a meeting with South Korean Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae, coincides with the seventh anniversary of the signing of the October 4 Declaration, a historic document on the advancement of ties between the two neighboring countries.

The DPRK's decision to send high-level officials to South Korea on this significant day is widely considered a signal to the rest of the world that Pyongyang has put priority on inter-Korean ties and is willing to strive for mending the relations.

WIDE COVERAGE OF ASIAD IN PYONGYANG

Winning 11 gold medals as of 18:30 Seoul time, the DPRK athletes without any doubt have done a brilliant job in the Games, especially in weight-lifting competitions, where world records were once and again being broken.

The whole country is immersed in joy and excitement for the achievements made by their players. In the DPRK, recorded videos of football, weight-lifting and judo competitions, where DPRK players had a good performance, are constantly being played on the Korean Central Television.

A student from the DPRK's Kim Chaek University of Technology told the official KCNA news agency that the Asian Games has become the most heated topic among university students during the 15-day sports event.

FIRST HIGH-LEVEL CONTACT AT ASIAD

South Korea has hosted the Asian Games three times altogether in history, with the other two respectively in 2002 in Busan and 1986 in Seoul. The DPRK took part in the games held in South Korea twice except for 1986.

In 2002, the DPRK dispatched a massive delegation composed of a 300-member cheering squad and 184 athletes to Busan and won nine gold, 11 silver and 13 bronze, ranking ninth in the medal table. But no high-level officials paid visits to South Korea during the games.

In the Guangzhou Asiad in 2010 and Doha Asiad in 2006, no senior-level contact was ever held between South Korea and the DPRK.

Analysts say the rare visit of high-ranking DPRK officials to the Asian Games means a significant and concrete step forward for improving north-south relations, despite Pyongyang's recent criticisms of South Korean President Park Geun-hye and her DPRK-related policies.

During the past few weeks, Pyongyang has constantly criticized Park for her DPRK-related remarks at the 69th UN General Assembly and her policies toward the DPRK during the 15-day sports competitions.

On Sept. 20, a spokesperson for the DPRK delegation to the Asian Games criticized Seoul for denying government support for the dispersion of anti-DPRK leaflets, which landed in DPRK via balloons.

The spokesperson said that efforts to foster a favorable atmosphere for improving ties must be made above all else, in order to put an end to the division and protect the security of the nation.

On Sept. 26, the Committee for Peaceful Reunification of Korea slammed Park's first keynote speech at the UN, saying her remarks posed "a blatant challenge to the dignity and social system of the DPRK and an extremely dangerous provocation driving the bedeviled north-south relations into a total catastrophe."

In her speech, Park called on the international community to tear down the world's last remaining wall separating the north and south of Korea and called for worldwide attention to addressing human rights issue in the DPRK, which the DPRK said has never existed.

In the meantime, the DPRK suggested carrying out the historic June 15 Joint Declaration and October 4 Declaration and urged Seoul to respond to the proposal of achieving reunification through the founding of the Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo, a loose form of federation, an offer first brought up by Kim Il Sung at the sixth congress of the Workers' Party of Korea in 1980.

The DPRK and South Korea agreed in the two declarations on a series of issues of common interests, including joint efforts to work for mutual respect and trust, easing of military tensions, arrangement for reunions of separated families and increase of cooperation in various areas.

The Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo, which enables both sides to exercise regional autonomy and different ideologies, offers the "most realistic way to reunify the country peacefully and fairly in line with the will, wishes and interests of the whole nation," according to a statement released by the spokesman for the Disarmament and Peace Institute of the DPRK Foreign Ministry Wednesday.