Hyundai Group launches task force for inter-Korean business projects

SEOUL, May 8 (Yonhap) -- Hyundai Group said Tuesday it has launched a task force to prepare for the possible resumption of its business projects in North Korea as the two Koreas move to implement a set of agreements signed during their leaders' historic summit last month. The new team, headed by Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun, will be in charge of drawing up a road map on its strategies for economic cooperation with North Korea, including the now-stalled tourism program to the North's Mount Kumgang and the joint industrial park in North Korea's border city of Kaesong, it said. The announcement came less than two weeks after South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held talks at the border village of Panmunjom and reached an agreement on a wide range of measures to ease tensions and boost ties, including complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. In 2008, ex-President Lee Myung-bak shut down the tourism program to the North's scenic mountain on the east coast after a South Korean tourist was killed there for entering a restricted area. The following administration under the ousted former President Park Geun-hye closed the Kaesong Industrial Complex in 2016 amid North Korea's military provocations. "We should be well prepared, not only for the tourism to Mount Kumgang, Kaesong and the Kaesong complex, but also for the resumption of seven inter-Korean social overhead capital (SOC) projects," Hyun said in a statement. Hyundai Asan, a key operator of the joint factory park and the tour program, earned the business rights for seven major SOC projects, including those for the development of electricity, communication and railroads, from the North in 2000, according to the company. scaaet@yna.co.kr (END)