Thirteen senior officials of the minor opposition Democratic Labor Party arrived in Pyongyang Tuesday on a North Korean flight from Beijing, while a spy investigation continued in Seoul involving a senior party official.

Party chairman Moon Sung-hyun issued a statement upon arriving in the North Korean capital, saying that the United States and Japan are attempting to cause a war on the Korean Peninsula in order to maintain hegemony.

Expressing frustration over escalating tensions in the wake of North Korea's recent nuclear test, Moon said that the delegation came to Pyongyang to make peace on the Korean Peninsula.

The Democratic Labor Party is the world's first political party to send a delegation to North Korea since its nuclear test on October 9th.

Before their departure from Seoul, the delegation asked North Korean authorities to arrange meetings with Pyongyang’s leader Kim Jong-il and Kim Yong-nam, the North's number-two official who also leads the Supreme People's Assembly.