More's Koreans Tour N Korea Despite Chill in Ties

SEOUL, May 8 Asia Pulse - The number of South Korean tourists who visited North Korea's scenic Mt. Kumgang nearly doubled in the first four months of this year, industry sources said on May 4, despite strained inter-Korean relations following the launch of the conservative Lee Myung-bak government in February.

North Korea has reacted angrily to Lee's pledge to get tough on Pyongyang unless it abandons its nuclear weapons programs, threatening to turn South Korea into ashes, suspending all inter-Korean dialogue and expelling South Korean officials from the inter-Korean industrial complex in the North's border town.

The industrial complex in Kaesong and the Mt. Kumgang tourism projects are among the conspicuous inter-Korean economic cooperation projects agreed upon at the unprecedented inter-Korean summit in 2000 between then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

As many as 100,300 South Koreans toured Mt. Kumgang so far this year, up from 58,000 a year earlier, according to a spokesman for Hyundai Asan, Hyundai Group's arm dealing with business with North Korea.

Hyundai Asan officials expect more than 500,000 South Korean to visit the North's mountain resort this year alone, up from last year's 350,000.

A total of 40,090 South Koreans also visited the North's medieval capital city of Kaesong during the first four months this year, Hyundai officials said, adding they recently increased the daily quota for South Korean visitors to Kaesong to 500 from 300.

The tours of Kaesong began last December.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and then President Roh Moo-agreed last October to launch another tour project for South Koreans at North Korea's Mt. Paektu, the highest peak on the Korean Peninsula, which has long been considered a sacred place and the birthplace of the Korean nation.

"The fact that so many South Korean tourists visited North Korea's Kaesong and Mt. Kumgang this year despite the chilled ties shows that the places are attractive in their own right as sightseeing places," a Hyundai Asan official said.

(Yonhap)

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