Hyundai Asan confident tours to N. Korea will resume

SEOUL, July 7 (Yonhap) -- The top executive of a South Korean company that
operates tours to North Korea said Tuesday he was confident cross-border tourism
will resume, despite heightened tension on the peninsula following the North's
recent nuclear test.
Hyundai Asan Corp., a unit of Hyundai Group, has been grappling with financial
woes for months since its two major tour programs to the North's scenic Mount
Kumgang and the ancient city of Kaesong were halted.
"Although there are temporary ups and downs, I'm confident of seizing the chance
to resume (the tours)," Cho Kun-shik, president of Hyundai Asan, told his
employees on the one-year mark since the Kumkang program stalled.
Tours to the east coast mountain were suspended in July last year after a
53-year-old South Korean woman was fatally shot by North Korean guards while
vacationing there. She had wandered into a restricted area.
Another tour to the city of Kaesong, an ancient capital, was also closed late
last year amid escalating tension.
Cho's remark echoed a comment made Sunday by Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun
Jung-eun, who said she will not give up on the group's business projects in North
Korea.
But the future of cross-border economic dealings, including a joint industrial
park in Kaesong, has become increasingly murky as North Korea has ratcheted up
tension.
North Korea conducted its second nuclear test in May and has test-fired a slew of
missiles, drawing condemnations and fresh sanctions from the U.N. Security
Council.
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