South Korea said Friday it has decided to allow foreign activists to cross the heavily fortified inter-Korean border in late May, but it will advise them to use a western land route instead of walking through a truce village.

About 30 female activists from around the world, including U.S. activist Gloria Steinem and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire from Ireland, plan to march from the North to the South across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) to deliver a peace message on May 24: International Women's Day for Peace and Disarmament. A legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, the DMZ bisects the peninsula.