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SEOUL : South Korea said Friday it may stop all tours to North Korea unless safety is guaranteed, after a female visitor to the communist state was shot dead by a soldier last week.
Seoul has already halted visits to Mount Kumgang resort after the July 11 killing of a woman who strayed into an apparently poorly marked restricted military zone.
A National Security Council meeting chaired by President Lee Myung-Bak decided that a second tour to Kaesong city may also be halted unless it is certain that tourists will be safe.
"It was agreed that comprehensive checks should be performed on Hyundai Asan's insufficient safety measures, and if problems are found... all aspects of the tours to Kaesong must be put under review," presidential spokesman Lee Dong-Kwan told journalists.
Hyundai Asan built the Kumgang resort on the communist state's east coast and operates tours both to there and to Kaesong, just across the border near the west coast.
The two tours, which earn the impoverished North tens of millions of dollars a year, are the only means for ordinary South Koreans to visit their neighbour.
The security council meeting, Lee's first since he took office in February, agreed that the North's government must guarantee safety before the Kumgang tour can reopen.
"For the resumption of tours to Mount Kumgang, an agreement through talks between government authorities must come first," Lee was quoted by his spokesman as telling the meeting.
The North has broken off all official contacts with the South since Lee came to office and promised a firmer line in cross-border relations. It refuses to let Seoul send an official investigation team to Kumgang.
A Hyundai Asan spokesman said the number of tourists to Kumgang jumped 60 percent year-on-year to 190,000 in the first six months to June. He could give no figures for the firm's losses from the suspension.
About 500 people a day visit Kaesong.
Earlier, a foreign ministry official said Seoul will raise the killing at a high-level regional security meeting next week.
"The shooting at Mount Kumgang is a case that may affect the regional security environment. Therefore, it can be put on the agenda" at the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Ministers and top officials from Asia, Europe and the United States gather in Singapore on July 24 for the security forum which includes North Korea.
Other participants including the United States, Australia and the chair Singapore are also keenly interested in the shooting and it is likely that the issue may be included in a chairman's statement, the official said.
South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan wants to meet his North Korean counterpart Pak Ui-Chun on the sidelines of the forum to urge his country to cooperate in investigating the incident, Yonhap news agency said.
The North said the 53-year-old woman, who was taking a dawn stroll on the beach near her hotel, had gone "beyond the clearly marked boundary fence" and intruded deep into a military area.
She allegedly refused to obey a call to halt and fled before being shot.
Hyundai Asan president Yoon Man-Joon went to Kumgang earlier this week for talks with tourism officials about the shooting. On Friday he was visiting Kaesong along with 220 tourists.
He will check safety and facilities but has no plans to meet North Korean authorities, a company spokesman said.
- AFP /ls
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