Source: The New York Times
Wire Service: Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-korea-north-temple.html
KAESONG, North Korea (Reuters) - In a rare nod to religion, communist North Korea has welcomed 500 Buddhist monks and followers from the South to a temple dating from the 11th century when Kaesong was capital of a unified peninsula.
The visit offered an unusual glimpse of the hermit state where references to the divine, at least in the official media, are normally limited to Kim Il-sung, who became the reclusive state's eternal president on his death in 1994, and Kim Jong-il, his son and the current leader.
North Korean officials were quick to stress that this month's nine-hour visit to the picturesque Ryongtong temple on the outskirts of Kaesong was strictly religious fare.
"We are opening the door wide open for pilgrimages to answer the wish of Buddhist believers in the South," Ri Chang-dok, from the North's Council of National Reconciliation, told a small group of reporters traveling with the Buddhists.
The pilgrimage marking the restoration of the temple was the first in a series that will see more than 2,000 South Korean Buddhists travel across the heavily fortified border that has divided Korea for more than half a century.