Foreign reporters visit Kumgangsan Tourist Region

HUNCHUN (China, Jilin province), August 29 (Itar-Tass) - The first
major international press tour to the Kumgangsan Tourist Region (Diamond
Mountains) in the southeast of North Korea begins on Monday with a visit
to the Rason special economic zone, which is situated on the border with
the Chinese Jilin province and Russia's Primorye.
The North Korean authorities hope that the press tour will help to
unveil potentials of that tourist zone and draw attention of foreign
investors to its development prospects.
More than 20 foreign reporters accredited in Beijing, including an
Itar-Tass correspondent, cross on Monday the border between China and
North Korea near the Chinese city of Hunchun.
This trip has been organized on the initiative and at the expense of
administrations of some North Korean cities, the North Korean state
department for tourism as well as the Korean Daepung Investment Group.
"The main aim of the tour is to show the beauty of Kumgangsan
mountains, as well as to demonstrate prospects for the development of
tourism in that zone," a press release said.
"Success of the trip will surely contribute to the development of
tourism in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), which, in its
turn, meets the interests of the country's economic development and
advance in the living standards of the population," organizers of the tour
told Tass.
The first stopover in the five-day trip will be in Rason, which in
1991 got the status of a special economic zone which gives favourable
customs treatment and where income tax has been cancelled for the next
three years in order to attract foreign investments, including from Russia.
The North Korean authorities have repeatedly voiced their intentions
to make that zone one of the biggest trade centres in Northeast Asia.
Several days ago the first trade fair, in which delegations from Russia,
China, Australia, Italy, the United States and Taiwan participated, ended
in Rason. Rason has recently got the status of a "special city".
The Hasan-Rajin project, which implies the reconstruction of the
52-kilometer railroad segment, the construction of a container terminal at
the Rajin seaport and the operation of the railroad infrastructure, is of
major importance for its development.
However, a visit to the Kumgangsan Tourist Region will be the focal
point in the program of the press tour. Kumgangsan is facing rather
difficult times because of a sharp decline in the flow of foreign guests
after an incident with a South Korean female tourist shut dead by North
Korean border guards in that region in 2008.
South Korean tourists have not visited that region since then despite
all attempts of North Korea to settle the problem through negotiations.
All these negotiations have failed because of Seoul's tough stance.
Kumgangsan mountains are situated on the eastern coast of the Korean
peninsula near the border with South Korea. This place is considered one
of the most picturesque in the world. A resort zone was opened in that
area in 1995 and functioned mainly because of a big inflow of South Korean
tourists. However, in 2008 it was practically fully closed after the
incident with the South Korean tourist.