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(LEAD) Seoul seeks Pyongyang's cooperation in probing shooting death
By Shim Sun-ah
SEOUL, July 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has been in contact with North Korean officials to ask for a joint investigation of the death of a South Korean tourist who was shot by a North Korean soldier while visiting the communist state, but it is unable to get a clear response, the Unification Ministry said Saturday.
The 53-year-old housewife was shot by a North Korean soldier early Friday while taking a pre-dawn stroll on a beach near the Mount Geumgang resort.
North Korea claimed the woman, identified as Park Wang-ja, crossed about 1.2 kilometers into a fenced-off military area, but fled back toward the hotel where she was staying when the soldier ordered her to halt for investigation, according to Hyundai Asan, the South Korean operator of the joint tour program. The tour program has been suspended since Saturday.
"We're trying to send a telephone message related to fact-finding efforts to the North through liaison officers at the truce village of Panmunjom," Kim Ho-nyoun, spokesman for the ministry said. "But the North is not reacting positively as of now," he said, indicating the North almost refused to receive the message.
North Korea observers say Pyongyang appears to be reluctant to admit a South Korean fact-finding team.
The presidential office convened an emergency meeting of related ministries to discuss how to address the incident, according to presidential officials.
President Lee Myung-bak expressed regret over the death and called on Pyongyang to cooperate for a swift investigation.
"It is incomprehensible that (the North Korean soldier) shot and killed a civilian tourist incapable of resistance during the time when (he) could recognize (objects) with his naked eyes," Lee was quoted as saying during the meeting.
"Swift action should be taken to investigate the incident, and follow-up measures should also be drawn up," he said, calling for the North to cooperate in the investigation.
The North has yet to officially inform the South Korean government of the incident, Kim said.
Pyongyang cut off dialogue with Seoul in early April, citing the new president's tough stance toward the communist state. The conservative Lee Myung-bak, who took office in late February, has pledged to link inter-Korean relations to North Korea's denuclearization.
According to the North, the North Korean solider opened fire on the woman at about 5 a.m. Friday after she disregarded a warning shot and kept running.
But some newspapers and her bereaved family members raised the possibility of the soldier's "excessive response."
"My younger sister is so timid that she won't even get close to a cat," a sister of the woman told Yonhap News Agency. "For what reason would such a woman venture to cross into the fenced-off zone during a stroll in the other's country?" she asked.
Bang Jae-jeong, the 23-year-old son of the victim, said it's "nonsense" to say that his "feeble" mother ran about 5 kilometers in the 30 minutes from her departure from the hotel until she was shot.
Lee In-bok, one of the six tourists who allegedly saw the shooting, said he heard two gunshots and a scream five to 10 minutes after seeing a middle-aged woman dressed in black strolling along the beach early Friday.
"I saw one person lying on the ground and three (North Korean) soldiers rushing out of a bush about 300 meters away (from where I was)," Lee, a 23-year-old college student from Daegu, told the news agency by phone.
"The soldiers prodded the person lying on the ground with their feet, as if to check if the person was alive or dead," he said.
He said it doesn't seem to be difficult for a tourist to get into the restricted North Korean zone by simply crossing a shallow stream. "I didn't see any iron fence there," he added.
Hyundai Asan President Yoon Man-joon left for the site on Saturday afternoon for a civilian-level investigation.
Park's body was handed over and moved a hospital in Seoul after undergoing an autopsy at a forensics lab Friday night. The result of the probe was not yet released.
Most of the 1,300 other South Koreans touring the mountain returned home following the incident, according to ministry officials.
Prime Minister Han Seung-soo and Unification Minister Kim Ha-joong will visit the hospital to console the bereaved family, according to the ministry's spokesman.
The shooting death overshadowed already worsening relations between the two Koreas. North Korea cut off all governmental talks over President Lee's tough stance.
The joint tour program began 10 years ago, and has drawn over 1.9 million visitors to the mountain regarded by both Koreas as one of the beautiful on the peninsula. Families separated by the fratricidal war have also held meetings at the resort under the supervision of the two governments.
South Korean officials said the shooting on Friday will not lead to the suspension of another major inter-Korean tour project in North Korea's border city of Kaesong, where a joint industrial complex is located.
The number of South Korean tourists heading to the Mount Geumgang rose by about 60 percent to 194,000 in the first six months of this year from 115,000 a year earlier, according to Hyundai Asan.
sshim@yna.co.kr
(END)
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