Defector's son to visit Pyongyang

Ryu Mi-young and her son Choi In-guk hold hands during the reunion of families separated by the Korean War, at the Sheraton Walkerhill Hotel in Seoul, August 16, 2000. / Korea Times file

By Chyung Eun-ju, Park Si-soo

A son of a South Korean couple who defected to North Korea in the 1980s will visit Pyongyang on Wednesday for a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the death of his mother, Ryu Mi-yong.

Ryu was a chairwoman of the Chondoist Chongu Party, a quasi-religious utopian peasant movement that has co-existed in an uneasy alliance with the ruling Workers' Party since World War II. She died in November last year aged 95.

Her son, Choi In-guk, 71, will travel to the North in a private capacity, South Korea's unification ministry that approved his cross-border travel said.

Choi will be the first South Korean citizen to visit the North since President Moon Jae-in took office in May.

"We approved Choi's visit to North Korea on humanitarian grounds so that he is able to visit her grave on the occasion of his mother's first-year death anniversary," the ministry said on Monday.

Ryu Mi-yong / Korea Times file

Choi will enter the North on Wednesday via China and return on Nov. 27.

Ryu was the only daughter of Ryu Dong-yeol, who commanded reverence in the North as an independence fighter, and the wife of Choe Deok-sin, who was South Korean foreign minister during the Park Chung-hee administration.

The Ryu-Choe couple clashed with Park and fled to the U.S. and then defected to North Korea in 1986.

In the North, Choe headed the Chongdoist party and became a member of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly.

According to the Chosun Ilbo daily, the party retains 22 seats in North Korea's rubber-stamp parliament.

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