A North Korean delegation on Sunday visited the National Cemetery in Seoul.

Arriving the same day to attend Liberation Day celebrations Monday, the delegation paid tribute to fallen soldiers in the Korean War and then visited the memorial monument where the remains of unidentified soldiers are enshrined.

Delegation head Kim Ki-nam, a secretary of the Central Committee of the North's Workers' Party, led 14 high-ranking officials, 13 civilians including Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland director Ahn Gyong-ho and three reporters.

The group was the first from the North to pay respects at the cemetery since the division of the Korean Peninsula in 1953.

Seoul said it expects the unprecedented visit to represent the first step in healing past scars and realizing genuine harmony between the two Koreas.

More than 54,000 people including late presidents Rhee Syngman and Park Chung-hee, 18 officials from the Korean provisional government and 355 generals are buried at the cemetery.