The Seoul government gave permission for heads of seven religious orders to visit Pyongyang, the Unification Ministry said Monday, as part of efforts to resume nongovernmental cultural exchanges with the North.

A 24-person delegation including the seven religious leaders will travel to Pyongyang via China’s Shenyang on Wednesday, when the two Koreas are set to hold denuclearization talks in Beijing.

Observers expect the rare, simultaneous trip by the South’s religious leaders to help bring breakthroughs in inter-Korean relations sapped by the North’s attacks on the Cheonan and Yeonpyeongdo last year. Some even speculate they might be able to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during their visit.

“We approved the visit in consideration of the religious leaders’ contributions so far in inter-Korean ties and their aspirations for peace on the Korean Peninsula,” a Unification Ministry official said.

The religious delegation plans to hold joint prayer meetings with their North Korean counterparts in Pyongyang and near Mount Baekdu until Saturday. The trip was organized at the invitation of the North’s Korean Council of Religionists.

Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik, who took office Monday, was to meet with the seven representatives of religious orders later in the day.

The representatives are Archbishop of Gwangju Hyginus Kim Hee-joong; Rev. Kim Yeong-joo, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in Korea; Ven. Jaseung, president of Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism;Ven. Kim Ju-won, director general of Won-Buddhism; Choi Geun-deok, president of Sung Kyun Kwan Association of Confucianism in Korea; Yim Woon-kil, supreme leader of central headquarters of Chondogyo; and Han Yang-won, president of the Association for Native Korean Religions.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)