Mount Geumgang, North Korea -- About 700 religious representatives and government officials from Seoul and Pyongyang held a ceremony together yesterday to celebrate the reopening of a North Korean Buddhist temple that was destroyed in the 1950 war.

The restoration of Shingye temple, destroyed during the 1950 war, had been foreseen in the joint declaration signed by Seoul and Pyongyang in 2000.

Shingye temple is situated on the eastern coast of North Korea near Mount Geumgang. It is a complex of 10 adjoining temples.

Destroyed by American fire in 1951, the temple was reopened after two years of restoration works undertaken by the Jogye Order, South Korea's largest Buddhist group, and the North Korean Buddhist Federation.

"We can hold this ceremony thanks to June 15 joint declaration," said Chung So-jung, the federation chief. "Our hopes for the unification of the two Koreas will now be backed by prayers by Buddhists from the two Koreas."

The declaration, signed in 2000 by the then president of Seoul, Kim Dae-jung and by the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, foresaw a "first joint project" to "restore a common cultural asset since the division of the Korean Peninsula in 1948".

Founded in 519 A.D. during the Silla Dynasty, Shingye Temple is one of the most famous places of worship of Korean Buddhism.