US human rights envoy for North Korea cancels trip to industrial complex in North

By KWANG-TAE KIM | Associated Press Writer SEOUL, South Korea (AP) _ The U.S. envoy for North Korean human rights has canceled a trip there to inspect a jointly run North-South industrial complex, a South Korean official said Monday. Jay Lefkowitz had planned to visit the Kaesong complex, just north of the heavily fortified border dividing the peninsula, this week but he "voluntarily withdrew his plan," Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyeon told The Associated Press. A U.S. Embassy official in Seoul said Lefkowitz would not visit South Korea for a trip to Kaesong. The official asked not to be named as he was not authorized to speak to media. The move comes amid tensions on the peninsula following the shooting death of a South Korean tourist by a North Korean soldier at a mountain resort in the North. The North blamed... [read full story]