Pyongyang expels four staff from South Korean-run resort

Tue, 13 Apr 2010

Seoul - North Korea Tuesday ordered four employees of a mountain resort run by South Korea to leave the country, news reports said.

The four were part of a team maintaining the Mount Kumang resort, situated in North Korea but built and operated by the South Korean government and state tourism agency, news agency Yonhap reported.

The move comes as Pyongyang increases pressure on South Korea to resume visits to Mount Kumgang, which have been suspended for two years since a South Korean tourist was shot there.

Five buildings of the resort have been locked and sealed, including a reunion centre for families divided between the two Koreas, and a duty-free shop.

The expulsion comes as part of North Korea's freeze of Seoul-held assets, which aims to pressure Seoul into restarting the tours, an important revenue source for the cash-strapped nation, the Yonhap report said.

The latest actions would have little effect, Seoul officials were quoted as saying, as the facilities have hardly seen any use for the last two years.

The visits were frozen in 2008, when a South Korean woman was shot after walking into a nearby military restricted area. Visits to Kaesong, a jointly operated free-trade zone in the north, were also suspended.

South Korea has demanded that Pyongyang guarantee the safety of any future South Korean tourists to the site, and a joint investigation into the shooting, before considering further tours.

The four expelled workers, ethnic Koreans from China, were ordered to leave North Korea within 24 hours, Hyundai Asan, which manages the resort, said. A further 70 South Koreans are employed at Mount Kumang to maintain the currently unused facilities.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/318431,pyongyang-expels-four-staff-from-south-korean-run-resort.html.