North Korea has reportedly cancelled a planned visit to Pyongyang by a high-profile South Korean delegation.

The Yonhap news agency in Seoul said Sunday the delegation consisting of prominent figures in political, economic, cultural and social circles had been planning to visit Pyongyang early next September.

Yonhap said their trip was cancelled following the mass defection of North Koreans into the South and Seoul's rejection to allow South Korean civic activists to visit Pyongyang to mark the tenth anniversary of the death of North Korea's former leader Kim Il-sung.

According to the report, the trip was arranged in June when a senior North Korean official visited Seoul to mark the fourth anniversary of the June 2000 inter-Korean summit.

The group was to discuss the North Korean official's proposal to build a libaray in Pyongyang to commemorate the June 2000 inter-Korean summit. The South Korean delegation was also pushing for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during their stay in Pyongyang.

Yonhap said the South Korean delegation consited of members of a group called 'Joo-am-hoe,' a fraternaity composed of Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan and other members of the entourage who had accompanied former President Kim Dae-jung on a Pyongyang visit in 2002.