By Kang Hyun-kyung
Liberals and conservatives have long differed over the assessment of the role of Mt. Geumgang tours, which ran for 10 years from November 1998, with different outcomes for both groups.
The project survived several formidable challenges during the liberal Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations.
But it was suspended in July 2008, five months after conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office, after a South Korean tourist was killed. To date, the Lee government has shown no signs of resuming the iconic venture.
During the decade of tours nearly two million South Koreans explored the crown jewel of the North. But the death of South Korean Park Wang-ja, shot near the resort, indefinitely halted the tour.
Liberals viewed Mt. Geumgang tourism as a symbol of reconciliation between South and North Korea, noting expanding human-to-human exchanges through the project helped the two Koreas have a better understanding of their counterparts.
Liberal governments backed and kept trying to make the tourism project continue, despite mounting criticism over North Korea’s belligerent acts and a running deficit for the operator.
Hyundai and North Korea’s Asia-Pacific Peace Committee (APPC) signed an agreement to start the project in 1998, a year after President Kim Dae-jung, an architect of the engagement-oriented Sunshine Policy, took power.
The first cruise ship headed to the North on Nov. 18, 1998.
The project was first put to the test on June 15, 1999 when the first West Sea battle near the maritime border took place after a North Korean ship crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL). Seven South Korean sailors were wounded.
Five days later South Korean tourist Min Young-mi was detained for 40 days by North Korean authorities after she had a short conversation with a North Korean guide.
The tour was suspended briefly during her detention, but resumed after she was released.
The project drew backlash from the public in 2002 when the second West Sea battle took place near Yeonpyeong Island. North Korean ships crossed the NLL again on June 29, leading to a maritime clash between the two Koreas.
Six South Korean sailors died and 19 others were wounded, deeply scarring their families.
Criticism erupted over the tours as the North benefitted while showing no signs of stopping its belligerent acts against the South.
The North conducted its first underground nuclear test in 2006 and this spurred further criticism over the Mt. Geumgang venture.
North Korea’s provocations were not the only source of criticism of the project. In early 2000, Hyundai, the tour operator, struggled with mounting deficits.
Under the initial contract signed with the APPC Hyundai agreed to provide the North with monthly payments of $12 million through February 2005, regardless of the number of tourists. The number of visitors declined dramatically in 2001.
The Kim government helped Hyundai keep the tour afloat with financial support.
It provided subsidies of 70 percent for students and 60 percent for adults from April to December 2002, to encourage them to explore the mountain.
These subsidies and tolerance for the North’s bad behavior disappeared when the conservative Lee government took office in February 2008.
Conservatives saw the other side of Mt. Geumgang tours. They said cash payments given to the North Korean authorities have been used to finance the Stalinist state’s development of missile and nuclear weapons programs.
The project was finally halted in July 2008 after the South Korean tourist was killed by a young North Korean solider while taking an early morning walk near the resort.
Analysts say the two camps’ contrasting policies over Mt. Geumgang tourism are a reflection of their perceptions about the inter-Korean project.