Top officials from South and North Korea have joined citizens and businesspeople in celebrating the seventh anniversary of tours at Mt. Geumgang.

The ceremony was held at the Mount Geumgang resort on North Korea's east coast near the border between the two Koreas on Saturday. On hand were Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, Vice Chairman of the North's Asia-Pacific Peace Committee Ri Jong-hyuck and Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun of Hyundai Asan, the operator of the tour project.

Minister Chung, accompanied by Hyun and other seniors officials from the South and the North, planted a commemorative tree in front of the Onjeonggak pavilion before attending the ceremony and a cultural performance.

After the ceremony, Chung and Hyun met with a North Korean official to discuss expanding the South Korean company's tour projects in the North, which will include Mt. Baekdu, Pyongyang and Gaesong.

More than one million 140-thousand South Korean have visited Mount Geumgang since the high profile tour to the fabled mountain resort began on November 18th, 1998.

The Mt. Geumgang tours resumed full operations Friday. The North had halved the daily quota of South Korean visitors to the scenic mountain resort in protest of the group's ousting of its former point man on North Korean affairs, Kim Yoon-kyu.