SEOUL, Sept 27: North Korea rejected on Saturday a planned parliamentary trip to the communist state and described members of South Korea’s parliament as sychophantic traitors and charlatans who would never be welcome.

Earlier, Pyongyang said next month’s planned visit by 19 parliamentarians — along with more than 1,000 other South Koreans — was an insulting infringement of its sovereignty and could seriously harm ties. It said they had planned an audit similar to the ones conducted at South Korean ministries.

South Korean parliamentarians were mystified by the outburst, which came a day after the South announced a three-day trip to the North for the opening of a jointly built gymnasium. There was no question of any audit or inspection, officials said.

“It is preposterous and impudent for the sycophantic traitorous political charlatans to dare watch and inspect the independent and dignified DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) as they are bereft of any philosophy, dignity and sovereignty,” the North’s KCNA news agency quoted an official statement as saying.

“We have never invited the cultural and tourist committee of the South Korean National Assembly to visit the North nor had any intention to do so,” said the statement from the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, the North Korean body that oversees ties with the South.

An official from Hyundai Asan Company, a South Korean firm that runs loss-making but symbolically important tours to the North, said on Friday more than 1,100 South Koreans would visit Pyongyang from Oct 6 to 9 for the opening of a gymnasium.

The official said the group would include popular singers and sports players as well as members of parliament.

KCNA said the North’s delegate to talks with the South had sent a message to Seoul to complain about the parliamentarians.

“As you know, the cultural and tourist committee of the South Korean National Assembly made public its decision to make a state policy inspection regarding the North,” KCNA quoted the message as saying. “This is an intolerable mockery of the dignity of the DPRK, an unpardonable infringement upon its sovereignty.”

Parliamentarians saw nothing to apologize for.

“Our visit to the North has nothing to do with the national inspection,” Kim Seong-ho, a parliamentarian on the National Assembly’s cultural and tourism committee, said.

“It is purely intended to boost inter-Korean exchanges on culture, tourism and sports.”

The trip comes at a crucial time in North-South relations as Seoul seeks to balance its ties with Pyongyang and those with the South’s main ally, the United States. North Korea and the United States are at odds over Pyongyang’s nuclear plans.

If it goes ahead with the parliamentarians, the visit would take hundreds of South Koreans by bus on a new road through the heavily fortified demilitarized zone and then on to Pyongyang.

North and South Korea are technically at war because their 1950-53 war ended in an armed truce instead of a peace treaty.—Reuters