'Seoul ready to discuss Mount Geumgang tour'

By Lee Min-hyung

South Korea made a conciliatory gesture toward the North, with Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae expressing willingness Tuesday to resume the suspended tours to Mount. Geumgang.

“Seoul is willing to solve pending issues with Pyongyang should high-level talks resume,” Ryoo said during an event commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Peace Foundation, a Seoul-based organization seeking a path for Korean unification.

His comments came on the same day that Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun visited Mount Geumgang on the North’s east coast. She made the one-day trip to commemorate the 16th anniversary of launching the tour program.

“The mountain tour is an issue closely related with inter-Korean relations. Comprehensive measures should be taken to dispel worries over the tour, including protecting tourists’ safety,” ministry spokesman Lim Byeong-cheol said during a regular briefing Wednesday.

Hyun met with a group of North Korean officials while staying in the North and quoted them as having expressed hope to resume the tours by the end of this year.

In an effort to improve relations between the two Koreas, the tour to the scenic mountain was launched in 1998. Hyundai Asan, a Hyundai Group affiliate, ran the inter-Korean tourism program.

It gained tremendous popularity in the initial stage, with some 2 million tourists from the South visiting the mountain.

But it came to a halt after a South Korean woman was shot dead by a North Korean soldier in 2008, clouding the outlook for improving bilateral ties.

Relations between the two Koreas appeared to be warming recently, but turned sour again when North Korea threatened retaliation against the ongoing campaign by North Korean defectors and conservative activists to send propaganda leaflets into the reclusive country.

They have continuously flown balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets slandering North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju toward the border area.

As a result, highly anticipated high-level talks between the two countries did not materialize.

Adding to the already strained inter-Korean ties, the North recently issued a warning to the South about the latter’s annual military drill, calling it a practice for invasion.

“The Seoul government will respond strongly to the North’s provocations, but it will also keep building trust with Pyongyang by extending humanitarian aid and offering socio-cultural exchanges,” Ryoo said.