By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
A Finnish travel agency has presented a tour package that will bring Europeans to tourist attractions in both North and South Korea from June, according to reports Tuesday.
Olympia Travel Agency, which has operated tour programs to the isolated North for more than 20 years, promoted the $4,000-package as more Finnish people show interest in the communist state, despite tensions on the Korean Peninsula following the North's launch of a long-range rocket April 5.
Under the program, tourists will visit famous spots including Mt. Myohyang and the capital city of Pyongyang for 10 days, tRadio Free Asia (RFA) reported.
An agency official was quoted as saying that people tend to study a lot about the history and culture of the two Koreas and it will be a good opportunity for them to compare the two sides.
The company led 25 Finnish tourists to Pyongyang last Saturday, noting that the situation triggered by the rocket launch does not affect tourism to the North.
Only some tourism enclaves, such as Mt. Geumgang resort, have been opened to foreigners.
The South Korean government suspended all tour programs there after a South Korean female tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier at the resort last July.
She was believed to have strayed into a military restriction zone during a pre-dawn stroll but no investigations have been conducted due to Pyongyang's refusal to allow on-site inspections.