ROK, DPRK to meet over troubled tour project
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China Daily, July 12, 2011
Republic of Korea (ROK) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) agreed Monday to meet later this week over a troubled cross-border tour project, officials said.
The DPRK accepted ROK's proposal for an inter-Korean meeting aimed at discussing property issues at their joint mountain resort and suggested they meet Wednesday at Mount Kumgang just north of the border, tours to which were suspended in 2008 after a shooting death of a ROK's tourist there.
Seoul plans to send five government officials and five businessmen to the resort, according to the unification ministry, which oversees inter-Korean affairs.
The move comes after a fruitless visit to the scenic mountain in June by a team of ROK's government officials and businessmen. The rare visit was made at the request of the DPRK, which proposed discussions on "the matter of disposing" seized ROK's properties, but achieved little progress.
Last year, the DPRK unilaterally seized ROK's properties at the resort in response to what it saw as ROK's reluctance to reopen the suspended tours, once a rare source of hard cash for Pyongyang
Launched in 1998 amid growing rapprochement, the tours had brought nearly two million people of ROK to the mountain before it was put on hold.
Seoul has long refused to reopen the tours without a proper investigation into the shooting death and safety guarantees, while Pyongyang said it has done enough.
Officials here see Pyongyang's unilateral move as an unjustified breach of inter-Korean business agreements, and have vowed to protect property rights of its nationals involved in the project.
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