A four-day joint unification festival in Pyongyang marking the seventh anniversary of the 2000 inter-Korean summit will begin Thursday.

Some 750 people from the two Koreas and abroad are expected to attend celebratory performances and tour around major sites in the North before a joint declaration is released on the last day of the festival.

The South Korean delegation to the event is headed by Seoul National University professor emeritus Baek Nak-cheong and includes former Unification Minister Chung Se-hyun, Uri Party Representative Kim Hee-sun and Grand National Party member Park Kye-dong. No current government officials are included in the group.

The delegation is scheduled to depart for the North Thursday morning aboard a charter plane that will fly over the Yellow Sea.