By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter
South Korea will pull out 11 officials of the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) and three private companies by 10 a.m. Monday from the Mt. Geumgang resort in North Korea, a Unification Ministry official said Sunday.
The withdrawal comes after the North threatened Saturday to expel ``unnecessary'' South Koreans from the inter-Korean tourism resort beginning Sunday with another volley of harsh rhetoric on President Lee Myung-bak.
``Two KTO officials, three Hyundai Asan employees and six officials of Hyundai's partner firms will be pulled out from the resort by Monday morning,'' the official said on condition of anonymity.
The KTO officials have been in the resort to manage a duty-free shop for tourists and the other nine workers have been finishing construction of a meeting place for the family members separated during the 1950-53 Korean War.
The government will withdraw a total of 148 civilians from the resort by Thursday. About 120 South Korean workers will remain to manage tourism facilities, the official said. There are no South Korean government employees at the resort.
South Korea immediately suspended the tour to the area after a North Korean soldier shot dead a South Korean female tourist on July 11. Seoul demanded a joint investigation into the incident, but Pyongyang rejected it, saying the killed tourist entered a prohibited zone.
Citing the South's suspension of the tour program, a key source of hard currency for the communist regime, the North threatened to kick out ``unnecessary'' South Koreans from the resort.
Seoul officials have warned that any expulsion of South Koreans from the tourism zone is a violation of an inter-Korean agreement because they did not break any rules.
A Unification Ministry said spokesman he had no idea whether North Korea would expel all of the South Koreans in the zone.
Hyundai Asan, the operator of the tour program, said none of its 37 officials in the North have officially been informed of the expulsion.
``None of our workers remaining in the resort have been asked to leave by the North,'' a company spokesman said.
In a message delivered to the South Korean military Saturday, the North denounced President Lee for seeking Washington's help in dealing with the tourist's death. Lee discussed the issue during his summit with U.S. President George W. Bush in Seoul on Aug. 6.
``Traitor Lee Myung-bak, clinging to the coattail of his American master who was on a visit to South Korea, begged him to press the North to accept the demand for a joint investigation,'' the message said. ``The shooting was just a self-defensive measure, so we won't allow the investigation.''