N. Korea picks U.S. firm for Mount Kumgang tour business

NEW YORK, Aug. 3 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has signed a deal with a New York-based company for the operation of tours to Mount Kumgang along its east coast, once jointly run with a South Korean conglomerate, a Korean-American businessman said Wednesday.
Park Il-woo, also known as Steve Park, who has long conducted business with the communist nation, said his firm recently inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the Mount Kumgang tourism business.
He is the president of Korea Pyongyang Trading U.S.A., which imports a North Korean liquor branded Pyongyang Soju.
"It is true that (we) have signed an MOU with the North Korean side," Park said.
He added the North is expected to soon select Japanese and Chinese business partners as well.
For years, the North has unsuccessfully pressured the South to allow the resumption of the Mount Kumgang tour business.
South Koreans began trips to Mount Kumgang in 1998 under a joint project between the North and the South's Hyundai Asan, Hyundai Group's inter-Korean business arm, as a symbol of reconciliation. The tour program served as cash cow for the North.
The South suspended it, however, after a Seoul tourist was shot dead there by a North Korean soldier in 2008.
Seoul has been demanding Pyongyang's formal apology for the incident and security measures for its tourists.