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S. Korea making last-ditch effort to get journalists in N.K. for nuclear test site demolition

All News 09:03 May 23, 2018

SEOUL, May 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea is making last-ditch efforts to get its journalists into North Korea to cover the dismantling of the North's nuclear test site amid no response from Pyongyang to the South's proposed list of reporters.

"We have more time," Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon told reporters. "We will make more efforts since the dismantling of the nuclear site is an important and meaningful measure."

The unification ministry plans to convey the list of the eight journalists through the communication channel at the truce village of Panmunjom when it opens at 9 a.m. on Wednesday. The North has declined to accept the list for days without providing any reason or explanation.

If allowed to enter the North, the South Korean journalists could fly to the North's eastern city of Wonsan through the South-North direct flight route, a ministry official said.

They were selected as pool reporters for the South Korean media ahead of the ceremony that the North is planning to host this week to demonstrate the demolition of its Punggye-ri nuclear test site.

The date for the event has yet to be fixed, but it is expected to happen between Wednesday and Friday depending on local weather conditions.

North Korea announced in mid-May that it will publicly shut down the test site located in the country's northern region in a ceremony to which media from South Korea, China, Russia, the United States and Britain will be invited to cover.

On Tuesday, the journalists from four other countries, excluding the South Koreans, headed for Wonsan by flying on North Korea's Air Koryo plane, from which they are set to travel by train to an area near the test site.

The Punggye-ri nuclear site, located in the mountainous region of the North, is where the North carried out all six of its nuclear denotation tests.

kokobj@yna.co.kr
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