N. Korea offers talks with S. Korea on lucrative tours

(ATTN: UPDATES with ministry spokesman's quotes, details)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Nov. 20 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has proposed talks with the South on ways
to resume suspended tours that used to earn the cash-strapped country millions of
dollars, a source at Hyundai that operates the tours said Friday.

But whether Seoul would accept the offer remained uncertain.
The proposal came when Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun visited Mount
Kumgang on the North's east coast on Wednesday to mark an anniversary of the
mountain tour program, the source at Hyundai Asan Corp., the North Korea business
unit of Hyundai Group, said.
The source spoke on condition of anonymity because of the company's sensitive
position between the governments of South and North Korea.
It is rare for Pyongyang to offer dialogue through a non-governmental channel.
The Hyundai source could not say why the North was not directly contacting the
South Korean government.
The Unification Ministry did not deny the reported proposal, but refrained from
commenting, saying it had yet to be "officially" briefed by Hyundai.
"We have not yet received a detailed reporting about the results of the North
Korea visit," ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung told reporters. "I'll be able to
say something after we officially hear from them."
South Korea halted the Mount Kumgang tour program in July last year after a
female tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier after wandering into an
off-limits military zone.
Another Hyundai-operated tour to an ancient capital, Kaesong, was suspended in
December as part of North Korea's protests over Seoul's hardline policy on its
nuclear program.
Pressured by U.N. financial sanctions imposed over its nuclear and missile tests
in the spring, North Korea has repeatedly called for the resumption of the
Hyundai tours. In August, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il invited the Hyundai
chief and reached accords to reopen the tours.
North Korean media heaped criticism on the Unification Ministry for prolonging
its suspension of the tours.
"Nevertheless, the South Korean authorities are insisting on the unjust
preconditions that they have set long ago and continue to bar the resumption of
the Mount Kumgang tour project," Uriminzokkiri, the North's official Web site,
said in an article on Friday.
Ministry insiders say Seoul is more conscious of the concern that reopening the
tour would bring a sizable amount of cash to the North, in a possible breach of
U.N. resolutions on the North that seek to curb dollar flows into the country.
Mount Kumgang tours have earned the cash-strapped country US$487 million in tour
fees over the past decade. More than 1.9 million South Koreans have visited the
picturesque mountain.
The Mount Kumgang tour opened in 1998 under an agreement between North Korean
leader Kim Jong-il and the late Hyundai Group founder Chung Ju-yung, who was born
in North Korea.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)