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S. Korea rules out imminent resumption of North Korea tour
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Nov. 18 (Yonhap) -- South Korea reasserted Wednesday that it has no intention yet of reopening a Hyundai-operated tour to North Korea, as the deficit-laden company quietly marked the 11th anniversary of the suspended mountain tour program.
North Korea, pressured by U.N. financial sanctions over its nuclear and missile tests, has repeatedly called for the resumption of the lucrative tours to Mount Kumgang, which South Korea suspended last year after a shooting death of a tourist.
"At an appropriate time and when the climate of inter-Korean relations and other conditions are ripe, I believe there will naturally be consultations between the South and the North over the issue," Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said in a press briefing.
"But at this moment, I'd like to clarify again, we don't have any specific plans to hold talks to resume the tour or to propose such talks."
The tour suspension would further frustrate not only North Korea but also the South Korean tour operator, Hyundai Asan Corp., which reports a 203 billion won (US$176 million) loss from it. Despite drastic restructuring this year that cut back the company's workforce to less than half from 1,000 and Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun's high-profile meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in August, Hyundai Asan's fate hangs by a thread on the mounting deficits.
"We've now reached the end of the long tunnel. We'll make our best efforts to ensure good news comes within this year," Cho Kun-shik, chief of Hyundai Asan, said in a small ceremony held at Mount Kumgang to mark the 11th anniversary of the start of the tour. The group chairwoman, Hyun, also attended the event.
Tours to Mount Kumgang, historically well-known for its picturesque beauty on North Korea's southeast coast, began in 1998 on an agreement between late Hyundai Group founder, Chung Ju-yung, and the North's leader Kim.
The business had since drawn more than 1.9 million South Korean visitors and earned cash-strapped North Korea 487 million in tour fees. Hyundai spent additional $714 million to build hotels and entertainment facilities at the mountain.
Political relations rapidly chilled after the conservative government of Lee Myung-bak came to power in Seoul last year, ending a decade-long rule by liberals. Tension hiked in July when a female tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier after straying into an off-limits military zone next to the resort.
North Korea expressed regrets but refused to accept a South Korean team for on-site investigation. Seoul promptly suspended the tour.
Inter-Korean relations thawed with Pyongyang's shift to conciliatory diplomacy in the summer. But Seoul still keeps its stringent policy on business projects that would send a sizable amount of cash to the North and thus may contravene the U.N. resolutions imposed on the country after its long-range rocket and nuclear tests in the spring.
Pyongyang on Wednesday repeated criticism of the South Korean government.
"There is an anti-unification force which, shutting its ears to the demands of the people and anachronistically inspiring tension, blocks every path for the improvement of inter-Korean relations. That is the Unification Ministry," the Rodong Sinmun, the North's major newspaper published by the Workers' Party, said in an article Wednesday.
In the August meeting with the Hyundai Group chief, the North Korean leader had raised the issue of resumption of the Mount Kumgamg tour, suggesting it was a condition for Pyongyang's agreement to hold cross-border reunions for separated families. Family reunions were held the following month, but the two sides have not been able to agree on continuing them on a regular basis.
"We have taken a number of bold actions for reconciliation and cooperation between the Koreas. But the situation in South Korea grows increasingly dubious and completely opposite to the directions and demands of the Korean people," the Rodong Sinmun said in another article on Tuesday.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
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