By Kim Young-jin
Staff reporter
A Beijing-based company is offering Western tourists a rare opportunity to visit the Mt.Geumgang resort area in North Korea, the site of a reconciliatory tourism project that has become a hot-button issue between the two Koreas.
Koryo Tours, a British-run travel agency specializing in North Korea, is offering a 10-day North Korea tour package beginning Aug. 2 that includes a stop at the scenic outer Geumgang area.
The package also includes tours of the capital city Pyongyang, the port city of Wonsan, as well as the chance to view the North’s Mass Games, where large groups of performers take part in synchronized performance art.
On its website, the agency refers to the outer Geumgang area as “previously a resort operated by Hyundai for visiting South Korean tourists, newly opened to visitors from the northern side.”
The South’s Hyundai Asan had developed hiking trails and run tourist facilities as part of an inter-Korean tourism program until 2008, when the reconciliatory project was suspended after a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier there.
The new tour comes as Seoul has stepped up diplomacy with China over the thorny issue.
Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Yu In-chon recently requested the Chinese tourism administration to refrain from sending tourists to outer Geumgang and other areas of the resort, arguing that they may use Hyundai-developed areas.
He also expressed concern that tour groups may use South Korean resort facilities, which Pyongyang froze in April in a bid to coerce Seoul to restart the lucrative project.
Beijing responded last week, by saying it “respects” South Korea’s business rights in regards to the resort, but whether it will take any related action remains to be seen.
Koryo Tours said Tuesday the tour is going ahead as scheduled. It has also said guests will not use South Korean facilities there, according to Yonhap News Agency.
The Ministry of Unification has said it is keeping an eye on the situation, while Hyundai Asan is holding out hope for the eventual resumption of its operations there.
“The company believes inter- Korean relations will improve, and we will do our best to restart the project at the appropriate time,” a company spokesman told The Korea Times.
Some 2 million South Koreans had visited the resort over the past decade before the suspension of operations, which, for the isolated North, were a needed source of hard cash.
Koryo Tour was founded by Nick Bonner, who is known for his role in the producing the documentary “A Game of Their Lives” that featured North Korean footballers who went to the 1966 World Cup.
North Korea has granted limited entry to Western tourists since 1987.