North Korea will investigate on Friday three properties owned by South Korea’s Korea Tourism Organization at the North’s Mount Geumgang resort.

North Korean investigators will probe a hot spring, cultural center and duty-free shop with officials from the Korea Tourism Organization and representatives from the firms that operate the facilities.

An official at the Unification Ministry in Seoul said the ministry is approving requests by some 20 South Korean firms that have real estate in the mountain resort to visit the communist state after Pyongyang notified Seoul of plans to extend its investigation on South Korean-owned properties until the end of this month.

On the first day of its investigation Thursday, the North said that it would first probe a family reunion center owned by the South Korean government. However, Seoul said that it would not comply as the reunion center is not a tourist facility.
Representatives of the South Korean firms arrived in the North on Wednesday and Thursday following Pyongyang’s threat to seize their properties if they did not come to the North for the probe.

The North’s call for the investigation is seen as an attempt to jumpstart the profitable tour programs to the North that have been stalled ever since a South Korean tourist was shot and killed at the mountain resort by a North Korean soldier over a year and a half ago.