Is N. Korea looking for next hostage candidate?

Samjiyon Airport, near Baekdu (also known as Paektu) Mountain, is 1,400 meters above sea level and a stopover when visiting the Korean Peninsula's highest mountain. / Yonhap

By Ko Dong-hwan

About a month after the controversial death of North Korean detainee Otto Warmbier in June, an American tourist in his early 20s, the military state has launched a new tourism website.

In a country known for not allowing tourists free rein, it is hard to see it as just like any other conventional tourism promotion.

Over the years, the hermit state has become infamous for locking up visitors who offend, including 16 Americans in the past decade. So the new website raises suspicions about the Kim Jong-un regime's intention.

The state's National Tourism Administration launched "DPR Korea Tour" at tourismdprk.gov.kp. The site provides detailed information about tourist spots like Pyongyang, Mt. Kumgang, Nampho and Mt. Paektu .

Visitors can check out "useful" information for tours, state festivals and events, and local news.

The information is offered in Korean, English, Chinese, Russian and Japanese and is illustrated by photos and videos.

The site says the state, also known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, founded the Korea International Travel Company in August 1953, less than a month after the Korean War ceasefire. Since then, the state has "pursued an active policy for the development of tourism under the ideal of independence, peace and friendship." Its tourist industry would "promote mutual understanding and cultural bonds between peoples around the world and develop the national economy."

"The site appears to share the same vein of the state's recent efforts to use South Korean President Moon Jae-in's friendly gestures to make peace accords with the U.S.," Kim Jae-chun, an international relations professor at Sogang University, told The Korea Times. Kim was referring to Moon's proposal of inter-Korean military talks on July 21 and Red Cross talks on Aug. 1 to resume the reunion of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

"The state has long demanded the South extradite 12 defectors who had worked at a state restaurant in China, and resume Mt. Kumgang tours," Kim said. "The site may help the state reignite the tour program, which can lead to the family reunions, and earn foreign currency."

Kim Yon-ho, a senior researcher at the U.S.-Korea Institute in the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, was quoted by American media outlet Radio Free Asia on Wednesday as saying the site reflects the state's "intent to avoid its responsibility for Warmbier's death."

Following the site's launch, the U.S. Department of State reiterated its warning to American citizens not to visit the North, according to RFA. The U.S. government has reportedly said that the North's tourism profits could "support the state's nuclear weapons and other weapons programs."

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