Hyundai hopes to resume NK business

Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun answers reporters' questions at an immigration office in the border town of Goseong, Friday, after visiting the memorial event for his late husband and Hyundai Group Chairman Chung Mong-hun near Mount Geumgang on North Korea's eastern coast. Hyun said the group and the North hope to resume the tour program of Mount Geumgang within this year. Hyun and a 15-member delegation visited the North to participate in the event for Chung, who initiated the now-dormant tour program to the North Korean mountain. / Yonhap

By Park Ji-won

Returning from a visit to North Korea, Friday, Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun said that she and officials she talked to there hope the suspended tour program to Mount Geumgang could resume within this year.

Hyun went to the North's Mount Geumgang to commemorate the 15th anniversary of her late husband Chung Mong-hun's death. Chung, the former Hyundai Group chairman, spearheaded the tour program to the North Korean mountain.

“We hope that the tour program to Mount Geumgang will resume within this year, so does the North's side. It has been 10 years since the halt of the tour, so now I would like to talk about hope rather than despair,” Hyun said after arriving back in the South.

The tour program was suspended in 2008 after a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier.

Vice Chairman of the (North) Korean Asia-Pacific Peace Committee Maeng Kyong-il, 20 committee members and 30 members from Hyundai Group, including local employees (in the North) participated in the event.

Hyun is expected to visit the North again as she said the committee had invited her and company executives to visit Pyongyang sometime in autumn. However, the chairwoman didn't elaborate further as the two Koreas have many issues that need to be addressed.

Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun and company executives and employees, and the North's Korean Asia-Pacific Peace Committee members hold a memorial event for the late Chung Mong-hun at Mount Geumgang in North Korea, Friday. / Courtesy of Hyundai Group

It has been three years since the memorial event was last held and four years since Hyun visited the North.

Earlier Friday, along with Hyun, 15 Hyundai Group employees crossed the inter-Korean border by land after passing through the customs, immigration and quarantine (CIQ) office in Gangwon Province. Lee Young-ha, CEO of Hyundai Asan, the inter-Korean business arm of the conglomerate, and Lee Baek-hun, the group's strategy chief accompanied the chairwoman.

According to the group, the ceremony for the former group chairman was held in front of a memorial stone erected in the Onjeonggak area of the tourist zone from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m.

The North's propaganda website Uriminzokkiri pre-emptively welcomed Hyun's visit to the North, reporting on the history between the group and North Korea and describing Hyundai as the North's “first love” in inter-Korean relations.

The website said that the North's then leader Kim Jong-il sent a letter in 2001 to the South to express condolences for the death of Hyundai founder Chung Ju-yung.

During a meeting with Hyun in 2005, the website said the North's then leader Kim Jong-il delivered condolences for the death of Chung Mong-hun, saying he was politically murdered.

Chung Mong-hun committed suicide during an investigation on allegations he illegally sent money to North Korea.

The Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the Central Committee of the North Korea's Workers' Party, released an editorial July 31 titled “What Hinders New Journey of North-South Relations,” blaming the South's slow action.

Vehicles carrying a Hyundai Group delegation, which included Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun, head to Mount Geumgang in North Korea along a road on the east coast, Friday. / Yonhap