The inter-Korean joint Mt. Geumgang tour program is now at a crossroads. North Korea announced on August 22 that it would dispose of South Korean assets at the Mt. Geumgang resort in the North. The following day, 16 South Korean workers there, including officials of Hyundai Asan, left North Korean territory and returned home. In the meantime, North Korea has invited a tour delegation consisting of foreign investors and media officials from different countries, including the U.S., Britain, China and Japan. The delegation is making a six-day pilot tour to the Mt. Geumgang special district from August 28 through September 2. According to experts, this reflects that North Korea is seeking to push ahead with the tour program on its own and sideline South Korea. Professor Kim Geun-sik at Kyungnam University explains.

North Korea is making moves to carry out its own tour program by luring tourists from foreign countries, including China, while completely excluding South Korea. The international delegation’s pilot tour of Mt. Geumgang is a clear sign indicating Pyongyang’s such intentions. Until 2009, North Korea made a number of demands on South Korea for the resumption of the suspended Geumgang tours. But negotiations broke down, with the suspension of the tours extended. Perhaps, North Korea concluded last year that there was little possibility of restarting the tours jointly with South Korea. The North has since taken measures to push South Korea out of the tour business forcibly step by step, such as seizing and confiscating South Korean facilities at the mountain resort. More recently, North Korea announced the enforcement of a plan to dispose of South Korean assets there, conducted a pilot tour of the international tour group and unveiled a blueprint for developing tours at the mountain.

North Korea disclosed the blueprint to the tour delegation. Under the plan, the Mt. Geumgang area will be developed into a global tourist and business site. Basic infrastructures, electricity and energy in the area will be set up by a management committee in North Korea, while other facilities and business investments will be left for foreign countries, other than South Korea, to develop on their own. Some speculate that North Korea is taking such an action in order to pressure South Korea to resume the tour program. Here again is Professor Kim.

I think North Korea will still have a lingering desire for Hyundai Asan’s tour business led by the South Korean government, because it is the only tour program to bring hundreds of thousands of tourists to North Korea every year and generate cash for the impoverished North. Pyongyang is threatening to conduct the tour business with other countries, besides South Korea, in a bid to put greater pressure on Seoul. If South Korea proposes to restart the tours, the North will accept it. If not, North Korea will go its own way. I think that’s what North Korea has in mind.

Meanwhile, concerns are being raised in South Korea over the damage caused by a complete halt of the tour program. The remaining South Korean facilities at the Mt. Geumgang resort alone are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. If the tour program is put to an end now, it is hard to even estimate potential losses.

The assets in the Mt. Geumgang resort owned by the state-run Korea Tourism Organization in South Korea include a reunion center for separated families, a fire station, a cultural center where a North Korean circus troupe used to stage performances, a spa facility and a duty free shop. These assets are worth around 100 million dollars. Hyundai Asan, too, has many facilities there, including hotels, convenient facilities called Onjeonggak and a golf course. The South Korean assets, which were originally possessed by the government, Hyundai Asan and other private firms but were later seized by North Korea, are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Apart from the enormous initial investment, all those facilities have been in out of use due to the suspension of the tour program. So, the potential losses are far more serious.

The South Korean government, in the meantime, set up a task force to address the problem of North Korea’s “legal disposal” of South Korean assets at Mt. Geumgang and convened its first session on August 25. Officials mentioned the possibility of taking legal countermeasures through international organizations and publicizing North Korea’s unreasonable move through diplomatic channels. But experts point out that these measures have limitations.

Some propose to solve the problem through the International Court of Justice or the International Court of Arbitration. Given the unique nature of the inter-Korean joint tour program, however, it is difficult to follow a general process of international arbitration. Also, South Korea may dissuade the North from taking unreasonable actions through diplomatic pressure. Under the current inter-Korean relations, however, that is not an option, either. The two sides have failed to find common ground and remain as far apart as ever. For now, there aren’t any bright ideas to break the impasse. This is the biggest dilemma for both sides.

The Mt. Geumgang tour business was a symbol of reconciliation and better ties between the two Koreas in the 2000s. South Korean civilians set foot on North Korean soil to directly experience their northern neighbor, and Mt. Geumgang served as a meaningful place for people from both sides of the border to share with one another. For many, it was a venue for realizing the reunification of Korea. Experts agree that it is most desirable for South and North Korea to find common ground and seek ways to overcome the current deadlock.

I think the two sides can find a solution somehow if they manage to hold authorities-level talks and confirm each other’s determination to restart the Mt. Geumgang tour program led by South Korea. For this, Seoul needs to make a political decision and Pyongyang should take forward-looking measures in regards to South Korea’s preconditions for resuming the tours. Once the two sides decide to restart the tours, the Mt. Geumgang tour program can even be normalized now.

A U.S. travel agency has reportedly started offering trips to Mt. Geumgang in North Korea. The tour package allows travelers to use Mt. Geumgang Hotel inside the mountain resort, which is owned by Hyundai Asan and one of the facilities that North Korea unilaterally announced it would implement a “legal disposal” of. If the area is opened to foreign travel agencies, inter-Korean controversy over the troubled tour business will escalate. It is hoped that South and North Korea will be able to find a solution to the problem as early as possible in order to break the deadlock in bilateral ties and shift regional diplomacy toward dialogue and negotiations.


[Interview] Festival Helps Young Students Seek Proper Understanding of Unification
More than 400 elementary and junior high school students filed into the auditorium at Seoul National University of Education on August 11 to participate in a special event, “Unification Yongturim Festival,” which is roughly translated into “festival for inspiring unification.” The young students were curious about the North Korean defectors’ unfamiliar performances. The students had never seen such acts before but gradually came to feel a close affinity with the North Koreans, clapping their hands and enjoying the cheerful North Korean songs. As part of the project, “Public Opinion for Unification,” initiated by the Unification Ministry, the event was organized by Seoul National University of Education. Professor Lee In-jae at the university says he hoped to awaken teenagers to the need for reunifying Korea and to help them adopt an accurate view of unification.

Yongturim literally refers to a dragon poised to soar up to the sky. The purpose of this festival is to encourage teenagers, who will lead the process of uniting the two Koreas, to show more interest in inter-Korean issues and form an accurate vision of unification. Like a dragon ready to soar, these young students should be prepared for future unification. The festival is dedicated to expanding enthusiasm for unification among many students by inspiring them to experience various related programs.

The festival started in Jeju Island on July 27 and continued in other cities across the nation, such as Busan, Daegu, Cheonan and Chuncheon before coming to a close in Seoul on August 11. It is said that the festival was focused on helping the young participants feel the need for unification in their hearts by directly experiencing and enjoying its programs, not by sitting at a desk to learn difficult theories.

As you know, teenagers are rather indifferent about unification issues. Worse yet, some have negative views about unification. When learning about this grave issue in a lecture room, they tend to regard it as simple knowledge, not as their own problem. This festival is more focused on encouraging the students to approach and experience unification-related issues through passion and action. In Jeju Island, for example, the participants joined a children’s choir of the local KBS station. In Busan, a students’ club held an exhibition of various unification-related materials that it had collected with the help of the Busan Office of Education. In Daegu, we held a singing contest and a user-created content or UCC contest featuring the theme of unification as well as a soccer game joined by teenage North Korean defectors.

In each region where the festival was held, participants enjoyed a variety of programs, such as a writing contest, a drawing contest and performances of an art troupe consisting of North Korean newcomers. Also, there was a gathering of South Korean students and defector teachers and teenagers, who shared their stories about their school life and culture in North Korea. While taking part in those programs, teenagers came to feel closer to the North Korean people, with whom they had felt so distant before. In this way, 1,600 students nationwide were able to connect with one another through the valuable experience. Professor Lee stresses that expanding educational programs designed to motivate students to approach North Korea- and unification- related issues with their hearts is a shortcut to unification.

Programs like this festival should not end up being a one-time event, but continue in order to keep the hard-earned passion for unification going. It is true that most schools put priority on improving students’ academic abilities, and education associated with unification is relatively inactive. But teachers and students alike agree on the need for in-depth education for unification and various relevant activities, as seen in this festival. It would be good to include unification-themed discussions and exchanges in school curricula. Those classes could be connected with special programs like this festival to muster up enthusiasm for unification and enhance efficiency of education.

No doubt, the festival proved helpful for encouraging youngsters to reconsider inter-Korean and unification issues. It will hopefully develop into a meaningful event to plant the seeds of unification in the minds of teenagers—the nation’s future leaders.