DPRK proposes reopening border tourism with South Korea

PYONGYANG, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) suggested on Thursday to resume the tourism of the Mt. Kumgang and Kaesong city with South Korea, the official KCNA news said.

The Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee of the DPRK sent a notice to the South Korean Unification Ministry suggesting to hold a north-south working contact at Mt. Kumgang Resort on Jan. 26 and27 to discuss the reopen of the border tour.

"It is very regrettable that tour of Mt. Kumgang and the area of Kaesong has been suspended for one and a half years," the DPRK said in the notice, according to the KCNA.

The Kumgang tour program, run by South Korean Hyundai Asian Corp., was launched in 1998. More than 1.9 million South Koreans have visited the resort since then.

On July 11, 2008, a 53-year-old South Korean housewife, Park Wang-ja, was shot dead while she was wandering into a controlled military zone at the Mount Kumgang at the DPRK's east coast.

South Korea, in response, immediately suspended the tour program, requesting a thorough investigation, which the DPRK rejected.

The DPRK stopped the tour of Kaesong in December 2008 with the inter-Korean tensions escalated.