Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jung-eun has urged patience to her employees regarding North Korea's offer to Lotte Tours to become its new tourism partner.

Hyundai Group subsidiary Hyundai Asan had enjoyed exclusive rights to a tour project in the North's border city of Gaesong until the North's change of heart in the wake of Hyundai's dismissal of senior executive and Pyongyang favorite Kim Yoon-kyu for embezzlement.

In an e-mail message to company workers, Hyun said North Korea is a brother to the company and that they should wait until the North accepts Hyundai as they are. She strongly hinted at restored ties with Pyongyang by saying that the death of her husband and former chairman Chung Mong-heon had been aimed at retaining Hyundai's friendship with North Korea.

She also compared the sacking of Kim Yoon-kyu to a recent surgery she had undergone, saying that if the tumor hadn't been removed now, it might have caused greater damage in the future.