Hyundai chief to meet Kim Jong II for detainee's release

Hyun Jung-eun, chairwoman of the Hyundai Group, is one of the few South Koreans to have met with Northern leader Kim Jong II.

She is expected to focus on securing the worker's release.

She'll make efforts to bring the detained worker home, said Kim Ha-young, a Hyundai Group spokesman. The release of the detained worker is the most urgent issue, Kim said.

Her trip comes on the heels of US formal President Bill Clinton's journey last week to secure the release of two American journalists.

Hyundai has invested millions of dollars into a joint industrial park in the historic city of Kaesong where South Korean-run factories employ North Korean workers.

The man, only known by his family name, Yoo, was detained in March at the joint North-South factory zone in the Northern border town of Kaesong. He was was accused of undermining the North's political system.

President Lee Myung-bak said last Friday that his country's is doing everything it can to win the release of its citizens detained in North Korea.