(2nd LD) Main opposition protests N.K. official's planned visit to South

(ATTN: ADDS photo, more info in paras 12-14)

SEOUL, Feb. 22 (Yonhap) -- The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) strongly protested a planned visit to South Korea by a senior North Korean official accused of masterminding the communist regime's two deadly attacks on the South in 2010, which claimed the lives of a total of 50 people.

The government announced earlier that Kim Yong-chol, a vice chairman of the Central Committee of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, will make a three-day visit to South Korea as the head of an eight-member high-level delegation to the closing ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

Kim, a former top military official who headed North Korea's reconnaissance bureau, is suspected of having orchestrated Pyongyang's two deadly attacks on the western coast in 2010 -- the sinking of the Cheonan warship and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island.

Forty-six sailors were killed in the Cheonan's sinking and two marines and two civilians were killed in the island shelling.

The South has accepted the North's offer and President Moon Jae-in will meet with the delegation, officials said.

The main opposition LKP strongly protested the planned visit.

"The main culprit of the Cheonan's sinking can never put his foot on the land of the Republic of Korea," Rep. Jun Hee-kyung, a spokeswoman of the main opposition LKP, said in a statement.

Jun accused the Moon administration of trying to curry favor with the North and said it is because of such an attitude that the North made such a "shameless" decision to have Kim lead a delegation to the closing ceremony of the Olympics.

She also said the planned visit is a "rare humiliation" for the South.

"The only reason that Kim Yong-chol, the main culprit of the Cheonan's sinking and other provocations against the South, should set his foot in the South should be to come clean on his crimes and kneel before" victims of the attacks and the South Korean people, Jun said.

"President Moon Jae-in should make a choice between having Kim Yong-chol kneel before our people and never allowing the main culprit of the Cheonan's sinking to set his foot even an inch on the land of the Republic of Korea," she said.

To show its disapproval of the North Korean official's planned visit, LKP lawmakers decided to visit the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae at 9 a.m. on Friday.

"Through our visit to Cheong Wa Dae, we will deliver our clear position that Kim Yong-chol should not get his foot in the Republic of Korea, and officially request that (the government) disapprove of his participation in the closing ceremony of the Olympics," Kim Sung-tae, the LKP floor leader, said during a meeting of party lawmakers.

Kim went on to say that the North Korean official in question is subject to emergency arrest or execution by shooting upon his arrival here.

The ruling Democratic Party welcomed the planned visit.

"We expect this visit will contribute to easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula and moving inter-Korean relations forward," Rep. Kim Hyun, the party's spokesperson, said in a statement.

Kim said the party hopes the North's delegation will hold a meeting with the U.S. delegation led by President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump. The U.S. delegation is scheduled to make a three-day visit to the South starting Friday.
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