Published : Oct. 18, 2018 - 11:17
The head of Hyundai Group is pushing for a trip to a scenic North Korean mountain resort next month to mark the 20th anniversary of a long-stalled inter-Korean tour program, a company official said Thursday.
Hyundai Asan, the inter-Korean business arm of Hyundai Group, plans to seek approval from the Unification Ministry handling inter-Korean affairs later this month to contact North Korean officials to work out the details of a trip.
Any trip by South Koreans to North Korea requires Seoul's approval as well as Pyongyang's consent.
Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun (Yonhap)
"We are pushing for a trip to Mount Kumgang by our chairwoman, Hyun Jeong-eun, for the anniversary on Nov. 18," Hyundai Asan spokesman Lee Jae-hee said.
Hyun accompanied South Korean President Moon Jae-in on his trip last month to Pyongyang for a summit with leader Kim Jong-un. She also visited Mount Kumgang in August for a memorial service for her husband and former Hyundai Group Chairman Chung Mong-hun.
Hyundai Group founder Chung Ju-yung -- Chung's late father -- pioneered the tourism program at Mount Kumgang on North Korea's east coast on Nov. 18, 1998.
The tour program was a key symbol of reconciliation between the two Koreas, which technically remain at war as the 1950-53 war ended only with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
South Korea suspended the tour program in 2008 following the fatal shooting of a South Korean female tourist near the resort, stripping the North of a key source of much-needed hard currency.
In September, the two Koreas agreed to reopen the tourism program as soon as "conditions are met," a scenario that appears unlikely to materialize anytime soon due to international sanctions on North Korea.
UN sanctions -- meant to punish North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs -- ban, among other things, transfers of bulk cash to Pyongyang.
The United States has said there will be no sanctions relief until Pyongyang has taken credible steps toward denuclearization. (Yonhap)