N. Korea sets up tourism offices in China, Malaysia and Germany

(ATTN: UPDATES with arrival of Chinese tourists; ADDS background) SEOUL, Sept. 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Tuesday it has opened tourism offices in China, Malaysia and Germany in an apparent bid to earn much-needed hard currency by attracting foreign tourists. The North also plans to set up tourism offices in other countries, said Hong In-chol, a director of the State General Bureau of Tourism, according to the Korean Central News Agency. "We will diversify the tourist program with cultural, sports, bicycle, golf and treatment tourism and improve all services," the KCNA quoted Hong as saying. He made the comment while marking World Tourism Day on Tuesday. The KCNA said in a separate dispatch that the first batch of Chinese tourists arrived in North Korea via the air route linking Pyongyang and China's northeast city of Harbin. The North has also recently launched a tourism program for Chinese by opening air routes with the Chinese economic powerhouse of Shanghai and the ancient city of Xian. The move comes amid a dispute between South and North Korea over assets at a scenic mountain resort in the North. North has recently expelled South Korean workers from Mount Kumgang and legally disposed of all South Korean assets there in anger over the suspension of the inter-Korean joint tour program. South Korea halted the tour program at the resort, a key symbol of reconciliation on the divided Korean Peninsula, following the 2008 shooting death of a tourist by a North Korean soldier near the resort. South Korea has asked foreign countries not to invest or engage in tourism activities at the mountain resort as part of its moves to protect its property rights there. The North recently made a trial run of a cruise from its northeastern port city of Rajin to Mount Kumgang on its east coast in a move to revitalize the resort by attracting Chinese and other foreign tourists.