Seoul, South Korea — A North Korean delegation paid a first-ever visit to a cemetery in the South where Korean War dead are buried, as the two countries launched celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the peninsula's liberation from Japanese colonial rule.
Meanwhile, North Korea celebrated in Pyongyang with an event attended by senior party and military officials, where the No. 2 leader said the country seeks a peaceful solution to the international standoff over its nuclear weapons ambitions.
About 200 North Koreans arrived Sunday in Seoul for the joint events, set to begin in the evening with an opening ceremony and "reunification" soccer match between the two Koreas' national teams. Liberation Day is today.
Ahead of the opening, about 30 North Koreans including delegation head Kim Ki Nam, vice chairman of North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Fatherland, visited Seoul's National Cemetery.
The burial ground houses Korean War dead as well as independence fighters who died resisting Japan's brutal 1910-1945 colonization of the peninsula, said Unification Ministry spokeswoman Yang Jeong-hwa.
"We've proposed the visit to remember the many who died for Korea's liberation," Kim told Unification Minister Chung Dong-young in a meeting at a Seoul hotel, according to pooled news reports.
The North Koreans paid respects in silence at the cemetery for about five minutes.
Meanwhile, a small group staged an anti-North Korea demonstration near the cemetery, demanding that Pyongyang apologize for launching the Korean War.
North Korean chief delegate Kim Ki Nam, second from right, vice chairman of the North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Fatherland, pays his respects to Korean war victims Sunday at the National Cemetery in Seoul.
Chung said South Korea welcomed the cemetery visit as a move "toward a new future."
North Korea invaded the South in 1950. Fighting between U.S.-led United Nations forces and China-backed North Korean troops ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953, and the divided Korean Peninsula remains technically at war.
However, the two Koreas have made strides toward reconciliation following a landmark 2000 summit between their leaders.
Moves to closer ties have been frustrated by the North's standoff with the international community over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons ambitions. International disarmament talks failed earlier this month to reach a resolution of the issue and went into a recess, set to resume the week of Aug. 29 in Beijing.
The North has refused to abandon its nuclear program without keeping the right to "peaceful nuclear activities" such as power generation, but Washington refuses to let Pyongyang run any atomic programs due to worries about its past record seeking weapons.
In Pyongyang, the North celebrated Liberation Day on Sunday with events at an indoor stadium attended by senior party and military officials, the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported.
Kim Yong Nam, the North's No. 2 leader, told those gathered that Pyongyang seeks a "peaceful negotiated settlement of the nuclear issue and will continue to work hard for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," according to KCNA.
Kim also lashed out at the United States.
"The army and people of the DPRK will mercilessly smash the moves of the enemies to isolate and stifle the DPRK any time and finally conclude the standoff with the United States," he said, referring to the North by the initials for its official name.
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