By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter

North Korea has proposed holding talks with South Korea to discuss the resumption of the suspended tour program to Mt. Geumgang, according to reports Friday.

The news came after Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-un of Hyundai Group, the operator of the tour project, visited the secretive state Wednesday on the occasion of the 11th anniversary of the program.

The Ministry of Unification said Hyundai has yet to inform it of the proposal.

The government shut down the tour to the scenic mountain in July last year after a female tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier during a pre-dawn stroll.

``When Hyun went to the mountain, Ri Jong-hyuk, vice chairman of the North's Asia-Pacific Peace Committee said the North was willing to have talks with the South for the resumption of the tour,'' according to Yonhap.

The government has reiterated that it will not permit trips to the isolated state unless the North apologizes for the killing and promises to prevent a similar incident from recurring.

In the meantime, the U.S. envoy on North Korea will likely spend two days in the isolated state and be accompanied by about four to five senior officials.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Thursday that special envoy Stephen Bosworth will visit North Korea Dec. 8 for bilateral talks aimed at discussing nuclear issues.

``Ambassador Bosworth is expected to stay in Pyongyang for a day and a half,'' an official of the State Department was quoted as saying by Yonhap.

The delegation is expected to urge Pyongyang to return to the six-party denuclearization talks and implement the Sept. 19 agreement struck in 2005.

Four years ago, the North agreed to abandon its nuclear program in return for political and economic assistance from its dialogue partners ― South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

President Obama revealed Bosworth's trip to North Korea in Seoul, the last leg of his first presidential tour of Asia. But he noted that the United States will not repeat the existing pattern of reaching an agreement and offering compensation for its implementation.

``We will not be distracted by a whole host of other side items that end up generating a lot of meetings but not concrete action,'' he said.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly made similar remarks, saying, ``We are not interested in being distracted by issues beyond the main issue.

``That's the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. So that will be the focus of Ambassador Bosworth's trip to Pyongyang.''

He also stressed that the goal of the two-day dialogue is to get North Korea back to the six-way talks and secure its reaffirmation of the 2005 agreement.

The Obama administration is expected to soon announce the size of the delegation to North Korea and their itinerary.

North Korea declared its boycott of the multilateral talks after the United Nations adopted a resolution condemning its nuclear test on May 25.

But its ``Dear Leader'' Kim Jong-il expressed his willingness to rejoin the talks in a meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao last month.

ksy@koreatimes.co.kr