Hyundai Asan will start advance sale of its Mount Geumgang tours Friday with the goal of resuming the tours by April.

The company will give reservation priority and up to a maximum 50 percent discount on the tours to customers who pay a 10-thousand to 30-thousand won deposit, if the tours are resumed.

The company also plans to develop tour programs linking the Mount Geumgang tours to Mount Seorak and the demilitarized zone (DMZ). The four-kilometer buffer zone separating the two Koreas has been off-limits to civilians for more than half a century, and has kept ecological systems intact along with relics and monuments related to the Korean War.

The Mount Geumgang tours were suspended in July last year after a South Korean tourist was shot to death by North Korean soldiers at the North's east coast resort.