“We approved the trip on humanitarian grounds as it is an annual commemoration event for the death anniversary,” a ministry spokeswoman said.

The trip, if realized, will be the first visit to the country by Hyun since 2014. The Hyundai chairwoman met with late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il several times and was the among the first South Koreans to meet his son and current leader Kim Jong-un after he assumed power.

The group’s founder, Chung Ju-yung, championed closer ties with Pyongyang, pioneering many inter-Korea business projects including the now-closed jointly-run Kaesong industrial complex in the North.

Hyundai also poured hundreds of millions of dollars into a tourist resort at Mount Kumgang, just north of the tense border, and operated tours for South Korean visitors in an effort to promote inter-Korea ties.

But the projects suffered crippling blows as inter-Korea ties worsened and tensions rose over Pyongyang’s banned nuclear programme.

Seoul suspended all tours to Mount Kumgang in 2008 when a North Korean soldier shot dead a South Korean woman there.

The Kaesong complex was shuttered eight years later at the order of former South Korean President Park Geun-Hye, known for her hawkish stance toward the isolated North.

Park’s successor, Moon Jae-in, vowed to strengthen cross-border economic cooperation by establishing railway and roadway links connecting the two countries at a landmark summit with Kim in April. (AFP)