[THE INVESTOR] A group of South Korean businessmen called on the government on July 11 to support their losses in the inter-Korean tour program ahead of the eighth anniversary of the project’s suspension.

The local businessmen who poured money into the joint tour program at Mount Gumgangsan on the North’s east coast should get financial compensation following Seoul’s decision on July 12, 2008.

The government took such a step after a North Korean soldier shot and killed a female South Korean tourist.

“The government should make up for our losses in a similar manner to financial supports provided to local firms running factories in a joint industrial park in North Korea’s city of Gaeseong,” said the association of local businessmen.

Hyundai Asan, an affiliate of South Korean conglomerate Hyundai Group kicked off a joint tour program at Mount Gumgangsan in 1998, a symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation, attracting some 2 million South Korean visitors until it was put on hold due to the fatal shooting incident.

An association of local firms said that they invested a combined 170 billion won (US$148 million) in the tour project, claiming that they have not sufficiently received compensation over investment losses.

South Korea plans to provide financial support worth 386.5 billion won in compensation to the companies running factories at the now-shuttered the Gaeseong Industrial Complex. Seoul shut down the factory zone on Feb. 10 in response to Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear test and long-range rocket launch early this year.

Seoul’s Unification Ministry said the government provided around 20 billion won in special loans to the South Korean firms that invested in the tour project.

“The government is aware of the businessmen’s request. It will make efforts to take necessary actions after reviewing the issue in detail,” Jeong Joon-hee, ministry spokesman, said at a regular press briefing.

The resumption of the tour program has long been a sensitive issue between the two Koreas as Pyongyang has called for the resumption of the tour program, one of the main sources of hard currency for the cash-strapped country.

But Seoul said the North should take measures to guarantee the safety of South Koreans and offer concrete guarantees that similar incidents will not happen again.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)