Seoul Rejects NK Demand for Asset Freeze at Mt. Geumgang

By Jung Sung-ki

Staff Reporter

The Ministry of Unification rejected Sunday North Korea's demand that South Korean officials should visit a South Korea-backed mountain resort in the communist state Tuesday, to discuss its plan to freeze South Korean assets at the resort.

Last week, the North announced that it would scrap the Mt. Geumgang resort project with South Korea and seek a new partner unless the South complies with a survey of the assets.

It said five real estate assets on the resort compound ― a family reunion center, a fire brigade, a cultural center, a hot springs resort and a tax office ― will be frozen.

Pyongyang threatened that it will also re-examine the operation of an inter-Korean industrial complex in the North Korean border city of Gaeseong.

"We won't comply with their demands," ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung told reporters.

The latest provocation by the North is construed as an attempt to pressure the South to resume the lucrative cross-border project suspended in 2008, after a South Korean female tourist was shot dead during a tour to the Mt. Geumgang resort.

The South has called for the North to agree to a joint on-site investigation into the death of the tourist and offer a state-to-state guarantee of tourists' safety before the tour resumes. Pyongyang has not responded to the demands.

North Korea has notified Hyundai Asan, the South Korean organizer of the tourism program, of the plan to freeze the assets, saying officials representing the owners of the properties should respond and attend relevant meetings at the resort.

The ministry denounced the North for violating inter-Korean agreements and called on Pyongyang to engage in "serious and productive" dialogue over the resumption of the 12-year-old tour project.

The mountain tourism project had been a key symbol of inter-Korean rapprochement that flourished after the first inter-Korean summit in June 2000.

Nearly 2 million South Koreans visited the scenic mountain before the suspension.

정부, 북 자산 동결 거부

통일부는 일요일 재산 동결에 과한 협의를 위해 남측 관리에게 화요일 금강산에 오라는 북측의 요구를 거부했다.

지난 주 북측은 남측이 자산 조사에 응하지 안으며 남한과의 금강산 관광 사업을 폐기하고 새로운 파트너를 물색하겠다고 발표했다.

북한은 금강산 관광지구에 있는 이산가족면회소, 소방서, 문화회관, 온천장, 면세점 등 다섯 개의 남한 측 자산을 동결하겠다고 말했다.

북측은 북한 개성에 있는 남북경협 산업단지 운영도 재검토하겠다고 협박했다.