By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
The government reiterated Thursday its position that the suspended tour programs to North Korea's tourism enclaves can be resumed only when Pyongyang guarantees the safety of South Korean tourists.
``The South's stance on the issue remains unchanged," Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said.
He made the remarks at a time when inter-Korean Red Cross talks on separated family reunions are underway at Mt. Geumgang in the North for the first time in 21 months.
Chun said, "An investigation into a gunshot incident has to be conducted and measures must be prepared to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents."
A local newspaper reported that Hyundai Group is consulting with the unification ministry about resuming tours to Gaesong on Sept. 14 and to Mt. Geumgang on Sept. 21.
Chun said, however, that Hyundai staff members and ministry officials have yet to discuss the resumption of tourism programs.
Tours to the scenic mountain have been suspended since July last year after a South Korean female tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier during a predawn stroll at Mt. Geumgang resort.
She is believed to have strayed into a military restricted zone, but the case still remains unsolved, largely due to North Korea's refusal to conduct a joint on-site investigation.
South Korea urged North Korea to apologize for the tragedy and guarantee the safety of its citizens in the North.
The secretive state has rejected the demands.
But North Korean leader Kim Jong-il reportedly made a verbal promise for the safety guarantee during the Aug. 16 meeting with Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jung-eun in Pyongyang.
Hyun crossed the inter-Korean border on Aug. 10 in order to win the release of a South Korean employee working in a joint industrial complex in Gaesong and resume the company's inter-Korean projects through dialogue with Kim.
In the wake of the rare meeting between the two figures, Hyundai and North Korea's Asia-Pacific Peace Committee in charge of inter-Korean cooperation agreed to resume tourism projects.
The reclusive state opened the Mt. Geumgang resort and the North Korean border city of Gaesong only to foreigners.
Gaeseong trips have been stopped since North Korea unilaterally began to restrict border-crossings on Dec. 1 last year in retaliation for the Lee Myung-bak administration's tougher stance toward its regime.