South, North Korea to hold talks over resort

threatened to dispose of Seoul-owned buildings at the troubled project.
Twelve people from the government and from private company Hyundai Asan, which developed the resort, will visit Mount Kumgang tomorrow, the unification ministry said.
“The visit is aimed at checking the North’s stance on the properties in the resort and protecting the ownership of our citizens,” the ministry, in charge of cross-border affairs, said in a statement.
Mount Kumgang, the first major joint cross-border business project, was developed as a symbol of reconciliation but has often fallen victim to worsening political ties.
The South suspended visits by its people after a North Korean soldier shot dead a Seoul tourist who had strayed into a restricted military zone there in July 2008.
The South has said it will not resume the tours until the North allows an on-site investigation into the shooting and gives firm safety guarantees.
The North refuses to accept the conditions and sealed off a South Korean-owned hotel and other buildings. In April it stripped Hyundai Asan of its exclusive right to run tours there, and announced plans to turn it into a “world-famous” international tourism zone.
On June 17 Pyongyang warned it would dispose of properties in the zone, and asked South Korean parties to visit the scenic east coast resort by June 30 to discuss the process.
Hyundai Asan has invested tens of millions of dollars since the 1990s in developing Mount Kumgang.
The tours there which began in 1998 gave tens of thousands of South Koreans their first opportunity to visit the North, and earned the impoverished communist state tens of millions of dollars a year in hard currency.
But cross-border ties have been worsening in recent years.
They turned icy in 2010 when Seoul accused Pyongyang of torpedoing a warship and killing 46 sailors in March that year.
The North denied involvement in the sinking but last November shelled a border island and killed four South Koreans. – AFP.