The latest round of inter-Korean family reunions, the first of their kind in 13 months, ended on November 5. At North Korea’s suggestion, the weeklong event was held at the reunion center in the Mt. Geumgang resort. Reporters took pictures of various tour facilities outside the reunion center, to which they had been denied access since April due to North Korea’s unilateral decision to freeze South Korean assets there. There was a sense of desolation around a cultural center, where performances were staged, a duty free shop and Onjeonggak rest area, with white warning stickers emblazoned with the word, “Freeze,” stuck on the locked doors of the buildings. After the suspension of the Mt. Geumgang tour, North Korea signed a contract with a foreign travel agency and started promotion activities. Experts say, however, those efforts failed to revitalize tours to the scenic mountain. Here’s Cho Bong-hyeon, researcher of the Industrial Bank of Korea Economic Research Institute to explain.

Facilities at the Mt. Geumgang resort were revealed during the recent family reunions. The facilities looked rather deserted, as the Mt. Geumgang tour program have been suspended, with North Korea freezing South Korean government assets there. Amid the protracted suspension of the tour business, North Korea chose to cooperate with a Chinese travel agency and attempted to lure foreign tourists in a bid to pressure the South Korean government and earn hard cash. There were several rounds of pilot tours, but tours never really revived due to many reasons. First, Chinese tourists are supposed to arrive in Pyongyang first, but it turned out it was very inconvenient for them to move on to Mt. Geumgang. Also, the tour costs are pretty expensive. As a result, the Mt. Geumgang tour hasn’t been as successful as North Korea had initially expected.

North Korea brought up the issue of restarting the inter-Korean Mt. Geumgang tour project before the family reunions were held, and continues its demand even after the reunions ended. Before the reunions, South and North Korea had held three rounds of working-level Red Cross meetings since September to discuss procedures at the reunion event. At the time, North Korea insisted that the Mt. Geumgang tour be resumed first if the reunion center at the mountain resort was to be used as the reunion venue. During the inter-Korean Red Cross talks in Gaeseong on October 26 and 27, the North continued to call for the resumption of the tour program as a precondition for holding the family reunions regularly. North Korean Red Cross representative Choe Song-ik reiterated the demand indirectly during the second session of the latest family reunions. Asked about the prospects for regularizing the family reunions, Choe told reporters that North Korea had already notified Seoul of its position that the issue should be linked to the tour program. Why is North Korea so obsessed with the resumption of the tour project?

North Korea suffers from international isolation, which only aggravates economic difficulties in the communist state. Also, the failed currency reform last year prompted an enormous backlash from North Korean people, far from boosting the economy. Without a solution to economic problems, it will be hard for the North Korean leadership to proceed with the topmost task of facilitating a third-generational power transfer. But there are limitations in depending solely on China. To resolve the economic difficulties, North Korea is again making conciliatory gestures to Seoul in order to bring in dollars. The Mt. Geumgang tour program, in particular, is a crucial source of hard currency for the cash-strapped North; North Korea earned 30 million dollars each year from the tours. The severe economic difficulty in North Korea is the main culprit behind the nation’s obsessive focus on the lucrative business.

When the inflow of dollars from South Korea stops, North Korea will suffer from fewer means of settlement, which will result in a paralysis of trade with China and subsequent setbacks in the overall industry and economy. But North Korea isn’t the only one suffering from the suspension of the tour programs in Mt. Geumgang and in Gaeseong. South Korean firms, including Hyundai Asan, have seen snowballing losses. If the trend continues, the total losses are projected to surpass 550 million US dollars by the year’s end.

Experts estimate Hyundai Asan and its partner firms have sustained about 500 million dollars of losses until recently since the suspension of the Geumgang tour program. The state-run Korea National Tourism Organization that had been operating inside the Mt. Geumgang resort has also suffered over 9 million dollars of losses. The regional economy in Goseong County in Gangwon Province was hit hard by the suspension, with the damage reported in restaurants and lodging facilities adding up to 63 million dollars. On the whole, the combined losses are expected to exceed 550 million dollars by the end of this year.

Yet, the South Korean government remains firm in its stance toward the resumption of the Mt. Geumgang tours. It maintains that the tour issue should not be linked with family reunions, rice aid or inter-Korean relations. After a South Korean tourist named Park Wang-ja was shot dead in the mountain resort in 2008, the South Korean government rightly demanded that the North cooperate in a joint investigation, devise measures to prevent a recurrence of similar incidents and guarantee the safety of tourists. The government holds fast to its position that the three conditions should be met before resuming the tours. Also, the government calls for Pyongyang to admit responsibility for the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan. Given Seoul’s firm stance, Mr. Cho predicts any progress toward resuming the tours depends on North Korea’s attitude.

The Geumgang tour issue has much to do with inter-Korean relations, so it isn’t easy to restart the tour program just because preconditions are met. With international sanctions against North Korea still in place, South Korea’s resumption of the tours and the subsequent inflow of dollars into the North may dilute the effect of international sanctions. For the resumption of the tour program, therefore, it’s necessary for North Korea to improve relations with the international community first. Once Pyongyang returns to the six-party nuclear talks and demonstrates commitment to denuclearization and inter-Korean ties, the South Korean government can start discussing the resumption of the tours and other joint programs. These matters are related to the six-party talks, and my guess is that the Geumgang tours could resume in the second half of next year.

South and North Korea are expected to discuss the tour issue again during their additional Red Cross talks, which will be held on November 25. The Mt. Geumgang tour program is, no doubt, the symbol of inter-Korean peace and cooperation. It is necessary for the two sides to take a step back and work out pragmatic strategies to narrow their differing views.



[Interview] N. Korean Defector Resettles as Job Planner In the Job Department office at the Gyeonggi Woman’s Vision Center located in Ingye-dong in Suwon City, south of Seoul, Roh Eun-ji is busy offering job counseling over the phone. Eun-ji is the first North Korean defector to become a job planner here in South Korea. The Woman’s Vision Center helps women who had to quit their jobs temporarily due to childbirth or childcare find jobs again. Eun-ji is in charge of women from North Korea. The center not only helps these women find jobs but also offers them basic job training and manages their careers even after employment.

We offer all kinds of job-related services—from writing a resume and filling out a self-introduction statement to tips on how to dress going into an interview. If a job seeker wants to enter a profession that requires a particular skill, we help her learn the skill at a private institute and land that job after finishing her studies. We continue to monitor whether the job seekers are doing well after employment.

Eun-ji decided to escape North Korea in 1998 as recommended by her younger brother. After hiding out in China for eight years, she finally set foot on South Korean soil in 2006. She worked so hard, even cutting back on sleep obtaining five kinds of certificates. She made several attempts to get jobs but failed just as many times. Frustrated, she had to work hard jobs at gas stations or restaurants. Fortunately, she happened to know the Organization for One Korea, a civic group dedicated to helping North Korean defectors. There, she received training for counseling solely dedicated to defectors, and she eventually chose to become a job planner.

I didn’t want my fellow North Korean expatriates to go through the difficulties I had experienced. While I was wondering what I could do for the defectors, I happened to find the Organization for One Korea. I received counseling training there, and one of my acquaintances advised me to get an interview for a job planner for North Korean newcomers. I refused the offer at first, since I had no idea what a job planner was. I searched Internet portal sites to learn about the vocation, and I discovered that a job planner helps people find jobs and provides job counseling as well. That is, counseling has to do with this profession. So I decided to take up the challenge of becoming a job planner.

Last month, the Gyeonggi Woman’s Vision Center opened a training course for defector women from North Korea hoping to become job planners. There are high expectations for the defectors-turned-job planners, since they can provide North Korean newcomers with practical help that few South Korean counselors can offer, while encouraging them not to lose hope and keep up their confidence. Eun-ji chose this job with the same purpose of comforting the exhausted women defectors and helping them out. But she stresses that a successful resettlement depends on the newcomers’ strong will to stand on their own. It’s been only two months since Eun-ji started working as a job planner, but she hopes to expand her role to serve as an employment manager fully in charge of helping the newcomers get jobs and adjust to a new working environment as well. Once the defectors are hired, they can no longer receive welfare benefits, such as the livelihood government subsidy. They are paid relatively low wages, so they face economic difficulties even after employment. As a result, some are reluctant to find jobs. Citing this problem, Eun-ji points out the need for more pragmatic measures.

As recipients of the government subsidy, defectors can receive discounts paying utility bills, such as electricity, gas and water. Once hired, however, all the benefits are gone. Mothers who have to take care of their babies, in particular, can earn 700-800 dollars a month at the most since they can’t work all day long. They eke out a living on their meager pay. Male defectors, too, are at a loss at what to do in South Korea. They need to lower their standards as they seek jobs, and employers, for their part, should be more patient in training and hiring North Koreans. Then, many more defectors can find jobs more easily.