By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter
Hyundai Asan is suffering both with its bottom line and business prospects, with its Mt. Geumgang tours suspended since July in the wake of the shooting of a tourist. The only silver lining is its Gaeseong tour, the lesser of its North Korean flagship projects, with the number of tourists reaching 100,000 Wednesday.
The Hyundai Group affiliate celebrated the occasion at the inter-Korean border office at Dorasan Station on the southern side of the Seoul-Sinuiju Railway in northern Gyeonggi Province.
The landmark was reached 10 months after the tourism program was launched in December last year, and two months earlier than expected. An average of 370 tourists have visited the historical city on a daily basis so far.
Hyundai Asan expected the recent decision by the U.S. government to remove North Korea from its blacklist of terrorism-supporting countries will help improve business.
``I am just doing my best by having frequent meetings with North Korean officials,'' Hyundai Asan President Cho Kun-shik said recently. ``The whole program is beneficial to both Koreas, and tourism to Mt. Geumgang could resume soon.''
The suspension of the Mt. Geumgang tour program has cost the company over 70 billion won since the July incident, in which a female South Korean tourist was shot dead by a North Korean guard.
Hyundai Asan earned 71.9 billion last year in the July-September period at Geumgang, according to data from the Financial Supervisory Service. The incident also damaged the Gaeseong program, as the number of visitors fell to below 7,500 in August and September. Before July, the monthly figure was around 10,000.
Hyundai pays North Korea $100 per visitor. Hyundai Asan is planning to focus on the construction portion of its business for the time being.
``It's definitely good news, but we still need more time to wait and see if the North really changes its stance and if so how,'' a Hyundai Asan spokesman said, regarding the U.S. decision on the North. ``In the meantime, we are keeping our fingers crossed.''