Road connects Koreas for first time since 1945

A road was opened yesterday across the heavily fortified zone that separates North and South Korea, the first such connection between the two countries since they were divided in 1945.

In a move seen as helping to ease North Korea's tensions with the United States, a group of tourism and business officials from the south travelled by bus to a mountain resort in the north along the route.

The road was among several projects agreed upon at an inter-Korean summit in 2000 that, at the time, was seen as the crowning achievement of the outgoing South Korean president, Kim Dae-Jung, who subsequently won the Nobel peace prize. But his political opponents have since claimed that he bribed the communist regime to hold the summit through the Hyundai Group, which drew up to $190m (£115m) from a state-owned bank just before the summit and spent it on unspecified projects in the North.

Among those leading the calls for an explanation is Kim Dae-Jung's successor, President Roh Moo-hyun, who has no desire to inherit a poisoned chalice. Both Mr Kim and Hyundai have denied any wrongdoing.