The widow of late South Korean president Kim Dae-Jung will make a rare trip to North Korea tomorrow, raising cautious hopes of a thaw in cross-border tensions despite Seoul playing down the trip as a purely personal affair.


The August 5-8 visit by Lee Hee-Ho is ostensibly humanitarian in nature, with the 93-year-old planning to tour a children's hospital, a maternity home and an orphanage in Pyongyang.


But all eyes are on whether she will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, who has yet to receive any South Korean citizen since formally assuming power more than three years ago. The two have already met once - when Lee visited to pay her respects following the death of Kim Jong-Un's father and former leader Kim Jong-Il in December 2011.