Prime Minister tours Korea

THE Sri Lankan delegation led by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse visited the War Free Zone between the boundaries of South Korea and North Korea on Thursday.

The delegation were taken in a motorcade with state honours and police security to the boundary line at Pumnunjam between South Korea and North Korea, a release from the Prime Minister's Office said.

When the Prime Minister reached the boundary at the end of a 62 kilometre journey from Seoul, the joint battalion of American and Korean soldiers presented the Royal Salute.

From there, the Sri Lankan delegation was taken to the War Free Zone in a special safety bus escorted by United Nation's Peace Force and Korean Army officers. The Peace Force explained to the Prime Minister the boundary crisis, and the subsequent ceasefire agreement brought about by the intervention of the United Nations.

Prime Minister Rajapakse was also taken to the place where the peace agreement was signed between South Korea and North Korea in 1950 under the intervention of the United Nations. He viewed the Peace Building where the war memorial stands to remember the 40,000 Peace Force war heroes who were killed when North Korea invaded South Korea.

While the Peace Force and South Korean Army Officers were explaining about the table on which the Peace Agreement was signed, the North Korean soldiers were very attentive from the building which stood on their boundary line.

The Prime Minister was then taken to the "Bridge of No Return" across the border where the flags of the two countries were flying.

The Lankan delegation also viewed the Chombug Palace the citadel built by King Boeck at Seoul in 1495.

Prime Minister Rajapakse also had talks with the Korean Government Information Technology Minister to improve Information Technology in Sri Lanka.

South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun and Prime Minister Lee Hae Chan hosted Prime Minister Rajapakse to a special banquet held in his honour.

Meanwhile, South Korea has pledged to grant US $ 35 million for post tsunami reconstruction work in Sri Lanka.