North Korea has given approval to a Chinese tourism company to do business at Mount Geumgang resort, news reports said on Tuesday.
The Unification Ministry is trying to verify the reports, the ministry’s deputy spokesperson Park Soo-jin told The Korea Herald.
It would be the first foreign company permitted by Pyongyang to run the resort tour business since South Korea’s Hyundai Asan suspended it in 2008.
The company had had exclusive rights to run tours until they were revoked in April, but its business hasn’t operated since 2008 when a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier near the resort.
A Hyundai Asan spokesperson said the company will focus on confirming the facts and has no comments on unconfirmed reports.
Yonhap news agency reported from Beijing on Tuesday, quoting an unnamed source, that the Chinese company plans to organize a cruise tour to Mount Geumgang, located on the east coast of the Korean Peninsula, for Chinese tourists from Hong Kong and other eastern Chinese ports.
The report came just months after North Korea made a trial cruise from its northeastern port city of Rajin to the mountain resort to try to attract Chinese tourists.
The Chinese company, reportedly approved by Pyongyang to run the business until 2026, has paid-in capital of $1 million, which is comprised of $800,000 in Hong Kong capital and $200,000 in ethnic Korean capital, other news reports said.
Three cruises ― accommodating 600, 1,000 and 1,800 passengers, respectively ― will depart from eastern Chinese ports to North Korea, they said.
Since the shooting death of a tourist at Mt. Geumgang in 2008, Seoul has demanded a formal apology from Pyongyang for the incident, as well as improved measures for the safety of tourists, before resuming the tour program.
However, the North expelled South Korean workers from the resort and disposed of all South Korean assets there after it unsuccessfully tried to pressure Seoul to resume the tour program.
The North unilaterally terminated Hyundai Asan’s exclusive rights to the Mount Geumgang tour business in April and established a new law which allows any foreign company or individual to invest in the resort in May.
By Kim Yoon-mi and news reports (yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)
