SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- A group of 114 South Korean tourists Monday left here for Pyongyang, capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), for a five-day trip there, South Korean Yonhap News Agency reported.

　　This is the first time that ordinary South Koreans visited Pyongyang since the end of Korean War in 1952.

　　The tourists, on board DPRK's Koryo Air JS916 flight, would be brought home by a chartered jet of South Korean Asiana Airlines. Therefore, this is also the first time that commercial flights were used for an inter-Korean tour.

　　The tour program was organized by South Korean Peace Air Travel Agency, which reached an agreement with the DPRK's Mount Geumgang Tour Corp in July for the sightseeing tours of Pyongyang, DPRK's western port city of Nampo, Baekdo Mountain (Changbai Mountain) bordering China and other famous scenic spots nearby.

　　The Peace Air Travel Agency is run by a South Korean church-owned Peace Motors Corp., which built a car assembly plant in Nampo in April, producing 10,000 old Fiat subcompact models a year.

　　The travel agency's plan of taking 2,000 South Korean tourists to the DPRK this year has been approved by the Ministry of Unification earlier.

　　Hyundai Asan Corp., an affiliate of Hyundai Group, launched tours to DPRK's scenic Mount Geumgang in 1998. More than 500,000 South Koreans and foreigners have visited the tourist destination ever since.

　　"Pyongyang tour project will help more South Korea people to understand the DPRK, and benefit the inter-Korean ties," Yonhap quoted a company official as saying. Enditem