The inter-Korean tourism program at the Mt. Geumgang resort is expected to suffer its worst setback in 10 years of operations following the July 11 shooting of a tourist from Seoul. On Sunday, an unnamed North Korean Army spokesman issued a strongly worded statement threatening to expel all ``unnecessary'' South Korean personnel working at the North's scenic tourist site. The statement is the first official response by the communist country's military to the row over the killing of Park Wang-ja, a 53-year-old housewife, by a North Korean soldier.
It is regretful that the North has tried to pass the buck to the South over the tragic shooting incident. Pyongyang's latest move defies the understanding of South Koreans angry at the killing of an innocent tourist. The statement came 23 days after the incident, and carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency. It follows an earlier expression of regret by a spokesman for the North's tourism agency in charge of the Mt. Geumgang project, who also called on the South to take measures to prevent a recurrence of similar cases.
The North's reactions have reminded us of an old saying: The thief turns on the master with a club. It is nonsense that Pyongyang is trying to hold the South responsible for the killing and accuse the Lee Myung-bak administration of taking advantage of the incident to toughen its anti-North Korean stance. In addition to the imminent expulsion of South Korean personnel, the North has vowed to take stricter control on the passage of Southern tourists and vehicles through the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and tougher military counteraction against ``hostile actions'' in the resort complex and its surrounding off-limit military areas.
In short, the North's statement is apparently designed to force the South into silence over the death of Park and create more tensions over inter-Korean relations. It is nothing but the isolated country's outdated bullying tactics and its trademark brinkmanship policy. In particular, the North has been attempting to block Seoul from stepping up diplomatic efforts to muster international support for denouncing Pyongyang for the brutal killing.
We urge the Kim Jong-il regime to give up its anachronistic strategy of extracting concessions from the South by escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsular. The South Korean government should not yield to the North's undue pressure. It ought to teach the recalcitrant North a painful lesson that it will lose more than it gains from escalating hostility toward the South.
First, the world's last Stalinist state must accept the South's demand for a joint investigation into the shooting. And then it ought to sincerely apologize for the incident and take all possible means to prevent a recurrence. Only after that can Pyongyang normalize the suspended Mt. Geumgang tour program. It is time for the North to take more sincere and substantial steps to move toward national reconciliation and peace on the peninsula.