North Korea to expel South staff from Kumgang resort
09 Aug 2008 06:54:29 GMT Source: Reuters
(Adds South Korean ministry spokesman) By Jon Herskovitz SEOUL, Aug 9 (Reuters) - North Korea said on Saturday it will expel "unnecessary" South Koreans from a mountain resort in the North from Sunday after tensions escalated last month when one of its soldiers shot dead a South Korean tourist at the enclave. Housewife Park Wang-ja, 53, was gunned down when she wandered into a sparsely demarcated military area at the scenic Mount Kumgang resort, just north of the heavily militarised border and run by an affiliate of the South's Hyundai Group. "The measure of expelling personnel of the South side unnecessary in the tourist area of Mount Kumgang shall take effect from August 10," the North's official KCNA news agency cited a military official as saying. Seoul has been angered by the North's refusal to cooperate in an investigation into the shooting while Pyongyang has demanded an apology. South Korea showed its displeasure at the North's most recent move with a Unification Ministry spokesman saying at a news briefing: "North Korea has no grounds for forcing them out, unless their stay is against the law." Ties between the Koreas have soured since South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in February and said that the free flow of aid the North had seen under his predecessors would be cut and Seoul would tie its largesse to how Pyongyang behaves. Nearly two million South Koreans have visited the Kumgang resort since it opened in 1998 and was hailed as a milestone in reconciliation between the two countries, technically still at war, who station more than 1 million troops near their border. "The South Korean puppets, however, far from coming to their senses, are persistently pulling up the Korean People's Army over its just self-defensive measure and thereby pushing the North-South relations to a graver phase," KCNA quoted the military official as saying. Tension between the two sides also led them to scuttle a plan to march together at the opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics on Friday night, as they have done at previous Games, with North and South Korea entering separately. South Korea has been withdrawing staff from the resort since it suspended tourism shortly after the July 11 shooting. It may keep key personnel at the site, but that has not been decided yet, said Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyeon. Hyundai Asan currently has about 200 staff members at the resort that boasts hotels, mountain trails, a golf course and restaurants featuring North Korean cuisine. "We want this problem to be resolved soon and not to deteriorate South-North relations. We hope Kumgang tours will resume soon," Kim said. North Korea threatened about a week ago to expel South Korean staff at Mount Kumgang. The resort has provided a steady flow of foreign currency to the cash-starved North, with Pyongyang charging tourists to cross the border and taking a cut of the money they spend at Kumgang. (Additional reporting by Kim Yeon-hee; Editing by Valerie Lee) (For related factbox see KOREA-COOPERATION (FACTBOX) or click on [ID:nSEO19945])
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