By Michael Ha
Staff Reporter
The incident last Friday at the Mount Geumgang resort marked the first time that a tourist has been shot and killed by a North Korean soldier. But there have been other cases in the past where visitors straying into the off-limits area encountered North Korean soldiers.
Some tourists who have visited the resort are now recounting their own stories in news reports. Some recalled how they had wandered into restricted military areas outside the government-sanctioned resort and were detained by North Korean soldiers.
The resort is located on the East Coast a few kilometers north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
Some reports suggested that Hyundai Asan, a subsidiary of the Hyundai conglomerate which operates tourism there, did not take sufficient precautionary measures and that the company deserved at least some blame for the shooting death of Park Wang-ja last Friday.
One of the tourists who ran into North Korean soldiers at the resort is Kim Hong-seul, a South Korean pastor. He visited Mount Geumgang with fellow church members last year. He recalled how he encountered North Korean soldiers at an off-limits, restricted area, near the spot where the shooting incident occurred.
According to a local newspaper, the tourist took a walk by the beach at around 10 p.m., unaware that he was crossing into poorly marked North Korean military zone. He soon heard loud shouts from North Korean soldiers ordering him to stop. He was detained for 20 minutes and was later released and sent back to the resort by a North Korean military officer.
``Now that I think back, it was really a dire moment. That encounter could have turned out very differently. It could have been much worse. I could have been shot and killed like Park," he said.
The pastor also noted that when he told others at the resort hotel about the encounter, he got a surprising response from one of the listeners. He recalled that one person, who identified himself as a South Korean intelligence official, replied: ``that happens frequently here.''
``You are lucky that the North Korean soldiers let you go so soon. Some tourists get detained for three, four hours,'' the official reportedly remarked.
Another Korean newspaper reported on a story of a tourist who accidentally wandered into the restricted territory when he visited the resort last May.
The tourist, a government employee from South Chungcheong Province, went for a run along the beach area early in the morning. He was reportedly unaware that he had entered a restricted military area.
The tourist was detained by North Korean guards and was later sent back to the resort, with a warning not to cross into the restricted area again.
michaelha@koreatimes.co.kr
