By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
Twenty lawmakers urged Seoul and Pyongyang leaders to work toward resuming tours to Mt. Geumgang, saying the travel ban has taken a toll on South and North Koreans heavily dependent on tourism income.
Seoul suspended the cross-border tours, which kicked off in November 1998, five months ago, shortly after a female South Korean tourist was killed by a North Korean soldier last July. The North has offered no official apology for the shooting.
``Since the suspension of the program, dozens of South Korean businesses and approximately 1,000 travel agents that offered organized trips to the North have gone to the brink of bankruptcy,'' said independent lawmaker Song Hun-suk, an architect of the resolution.
Song said some 30,000 South and North Koreans are on the verge of losing their jobs due to the travel ban and eighty percent of shops and restaurants in Gosung, Gangwon Province, near the border with the North, have also been forced to shut down as a result of immense business losses.
``The tour program played a key role in the two Koreas' reaching an inter-Korean partnership, as it paved the way for the creation of the Gaesong Industrial Complex in the North,'' said Rep. Song.
The bipartisan group will submit the non-binding motion calling for the resumption of the tourism program to the National Assembly, Monday.
The move came amid the North's continuing provocative rhetoric, which began shortly before U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton paid a visit to Seoul to hold talks with her counterpart, Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan.
The North Korean Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, which oversees inter-Korean relations, accused President Lee Myung-bak of ``slandering'' the North.
In a statement, it expressed anger at President Lee for a remark he made earlier during dinner with ruling Grand National Party (GNP) members.
Lee was quoted as saying that if the communist North was unable to feed its people and North Koreans are worried about skipping meals due to the poor management of the economy, the North leaders should give up communism.
``Lee used language that seriously undermined our dignity and insulted our form of government. We will fight against our enemy ruthlessly and sternly to the end,'' the statement responded, Saturday.
The North said its troops are fully ready for war with the South shortly before Clinton's visit to Seoul.
Clinton, meanwhile, warned the North during her visit that it will not have a different relationship with the United States as long as it insults and refuses dialogue with the South.