Over 100 South Koreans who visited one of North Korea's most famous mountains to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the launch of South Korean tours there returned home on Monday.
The chairwoman of Hyundai Group -- which spearheaded major inter-Korean projects including the tours to that mountain -- says she expects the program to resume in the near future.
Oh Jung-hee reports.
It will be difficult to resume tours to North Korea's Mount Geumgangsan this year,... but they will start soon.
That's coming from the chair of Hyundai Group,... who returned from a two-day-trip to the mountain on Monday, after celebrating the 20th anniversary of tours there for South Korean civilians.
"In August, I brought you a message of hope that tours to Mount Geumgangsan could start within this year. At this point, however, that seems unlikely, but I believe they will restart in the near future."
Hyundai Asan spearheaded major inter-Korean projects -- both the tours to Mount Geumgangsan and the Gaeseong Industrial Complex.
The mountain tours stopped, though, after a South Korean tourist was shot dead in 2008.
While it's been a decade since the tours came to a halt,... over 100 South Koreans -- including Hyundai officials, South Korea's lawmakers and former unification ministers -- visited the mountain from Sunday to Monday... to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the tour program.
From the North Korean side, around 80 officials from Pyeongyang's Asia-Pacific Committee... and 500 ordinary citizens.
"The vice chairman of North Korea's Asia-Pacific Committee said he's very happy that the celebration was so grand and successful,... and expressed his wish that the tours resume soon. He proposed that his committee and Hyundai join forces to smoothly carry out inter-Korean projects."
The Hyundai chair said she could see that the North Korean officials want to resume the tours as soon as possible,... but they had no detailed discussions about inter-Korean economic cooperation.
She added that preparations are underway at Hyundai so the tours can start as soon as international sanctions on the regime are lifted.
Oh Jung-hee, Arirang News.
