US agency to offer tours to Mt. Geumgang

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/08/116_93575.html

By Kim Young-jin A Chicago-based travel agency that arranges tours to North Korea has said it will offer trips to the Mt. Geumgang resort in the communist state, the site of an inter-Korean tourism project that remains in limbo. Asia Pacific Travel LTD (APTL) said in a press release announcing its 2012 schedule that its stop at the resort would be the first by tour groups since 2008. “Kumgang has been closed to tourists from the North since 1998 and to all tourists since 2008. APTL is able to take tourists to this area of Kumgang using the historic Kumgangsan Hotel in the resort development complex,” it said in the release dated Thursday, using another spelling for the mountain. A representative at the Ministry of Unification that oversees inter-Korean projects had not heard about the development. The announcement came days after Pyongyang expelled the last remaining South Korean workers at the resort after vowing to dispose of South Korean assets there, the latest in a rancorous spat over the site. Tours operated by the South’s Hyundai Asan were halted in 2008 over the shooting death of a female tourist who allegedly breached the resort’s boundaries. Seoul wants an apology for the shooting and a safety guarantee before the project resumes, steps Pyongyang says it has already addressed. The North has vowed to lease or sell the assets under a new plan to open the resort to foreign investors including those from the South, apparently frustrated with Seoul’s stance. “If confirmed, this would show that North Korea is beginning to use the resort for its own purposes, as it announced it would,” Yoo Ho-yeol, an analyst at Korea University, said. “It is trying to show its determination.” Seoul has called the moves “regrettable” and vows to use legal and diplomatic means to protect the property said to be worth some 484 billion won ($447 million). The North froze the assets last year and passed a law opening the site up of foreign investment in June. Seoul is willing to take the matter before international arbitration. Yoo said the North could be playing a game of brinksmanship to compel Seoul to change its position, but that it is testing the waters for foreign tourism in a bid to attract currency. Some 2 million South Koreans visited the resort after the project emerged during a period of détente. The operations were seen as a needed source of hard cash for the isolated North. An estimated 2,000 Westerners visit the North each year. APTL has been arranging upscale tours to the isolated regime since 1995.

yjk@koreatimes.co.kr