The top executive of the nation's main operator of inter-Korean tourism projects is visiting North Korea, signaling a possible break in a deadlock in key South-North tourism plans.

Hyundai Asan CEO Yoon Man-joon arrived at the communist state on Wednesday for a three-day stay. His discussions with North Korean officials will include an accident in which a North Korean soldier was killed after being run over by a car driven by a Hyundai Asan employee at Mt. Geumgang in the North last December.

Pyongyang had banned Yoon from entering the communist state since last August in protest of the company's dismissal of its former chief executive and point man on North Korean affairs, Kim Yoon-kyu on corruption charges.

With Pyongyang allowing Yoon's visit and thus apparently regarding him as its new partner on tourism plans, key tourism projects that had been put off for months are likely to get back on track.