ID :
191738
Wed, 06/29/2011 - 10:40
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/191738
The shortlink copeid
Koreas end rare meeting on South Korean assets seized by North
(ATTN: RECASTS throughout to UPDATE with end of rare meeting in paras 1-2 minor edits; CHANGES headline)
SEOUL, June 29 (Yonhap) -- South and North Korea ended their rare meeting on their troubled joint tour project in the isolated country, an official said Wednesday, amid Pyongyang's latest threat to launch a retaliatory "sacred war" against South Korea.
A delegation of South Korean government officials and businessmen were returning home after a trip to a scenic mountain in the North to discuss the fate of South Korean assets seized by the North, Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo told reporters. Still, she said she had no further information on the meeting.
South Korea reaffirmed its stance that the North should honor inter-Korean deals and not infringe on property rights of South Korean firms at Mount Kumgang on the North's east coast.
The two Koreas launched the program in 1998 as part of moves to boost reconciliation, providing a legitimate source of hard currency to the cash-strapped North.
However, Seoul suspended the tour program in 2008 when a female South Korean tourist was shot dead near the mountain resort.
Last year, the North seized or froze several South Korean assets at the resort in anger over the stalled project.
The North has unilaterally terminated exclusive tourism rights for Hyundai Asan, a key South Korean tour operator in the resort. It also announced a law designed to develop the resort as a special zone for international tours.
The rare inter-Korean meeting came hours after Pyongyang accused South Korea's frontline military units of setting up slogans allegedly casting barbs at the army and dignity of the North, saying they were "little short of a clear declaration of war."
The North "will make a clean sweep of the group of traitors through a retaliatory sacred war," an unidentified North Korean government spokesman said in a statement carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency.
He also warned of "unpredictably disastrous consequences" unless South Korea apologizes for the alleged provocation, saying those who hurt the North's dignity will never go scot-free.
North Korea bristles at criticism of its leader Kim Jong-il and his late father and the country's founder, Kim Il-sung, the subject of a massive personality cult that pervades almost every aspect of North Korean society.
The development illustrates lingering tensions between the two Koreas since last year when the North torpedoed a South Korean warship and shelled a South Korean frontline island.
North Korea has spurned Seoul's long-standing demand that Pyongyang take responsibility for the attacks that killed 50 South Koreans, keeping the two sides from moving their relations forward.
The North has made similar threats in recent months over what it claims is Seoul's anti-Pyongyang psychological warfare, and said it would not deal with the South anymore.
Also Wednesday, a South Korean expert claimed in a conference that the North could carry out a third nuclear test within a year.
The biggest motive of the possible test is aimed at laying a solid basis for the "prosperous and powerful nation" Pyongyang vowed to build by next year, said Cheon Seong-whun, a research fellow at the state-run Korean Institute for National Unification.
Some experts have also speculated as to the possibility of a third North Korean nuclear test. North Korea conducted two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, drawing international condemnation and tightened U.N. sanctions.
entropy@yna.co.kr
SEOUL, June 29 (Yonhap) -- South and North Korea ended their rare meeting on their troubled joint tour project in the isolated country, an official said Wednesday, amid Pyongyang's latest threat to launch a retaliatory "sacred war" against South Korea.
A delegation of South Korean government officials and businessmen were returning home after a trip to a scenic mountain in the North to discuss the fate of South Korean assets seized by the North, Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo told reporters. Still, she said she had no further information on the meeting.
South Korea reaffirmed its stance that the North should honor inter-Korean deals and not infringe on property rights of South Korean firms at Mount Kumgang on the North's east coast.
The two Koreas launched the program in 1998 as part of moves to boost reconciliation, providing a legitimate source of hard currency to the cash-strapped North.
However, Seoul suspended the tour program in 2008 when a female South Korean tourist was shot dead near the mountain resort.
Last year, the North seized or froze several South Korean assets at the resort in anger over the stalled project.
The North has unilaterally terminated exclusive tourism rights for Hyundai Asan, a key South Korean tour operator in the resort. It also announced a law designed to develop the resort as a special zone for international tours.
The rare inter-Korean meeting came hours after Pyongyang accused South Korea's frontline military units of setting up slogans allegedly casting barbs at the army and dignity of the North, saying they were "little short of a clear declaration of war."
The North "will make a clean sweep of the group of traitors through a retaliatory sacred war," an unidentified North Korean government spokesman said in a statement carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency.
He also warned of "unpredictably disastrous consequences" unless South Korea apologizes for the alleged provocation, saying those who hurt the North's dignity will never go scot-free.
North Korea bristles at criticism of its leader Kim Jong-il and his late father and the country's founder, Kim Il-sung, the subject of a massive personality cult that pervades almost every aspect of North Korean society.
The development illustrates lingering tensions between the two Koreas since last year when the North torpedoed a South Korean warship and shelled a South Korean frontline island.
North Korea has spurned Seoul's long-standing demand that Pyongyang take responsibility for the attacks that killed 50 South Koreans, keeping the two sides from moving their relations forward.
The North has made similar threats in recent months over what it claims is Seoul's anti-Pyongyang psychological warfare, and said it would not deal with the South anymore.
Also Wednesday, a South Korean expert claimed in a conference that the North could carry out a third nuclear test within a year.
The biggest motive of the possible test is aimed at laying a solid basis for the "prosperous and powerful nation" Pyongyang vowed to build by next year, said Cheon Seong-whun, a research fellow at the state-run Korean Institute for National Unification.
Some experts have also speculated as to the possibility of a third North Korean nuclear test. North Korea conducted two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, drawing international condemnation and tightened U.N. sanctions.
entropy@yna.co.kr
