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SEOUL: South Korea Tuesday again urged North Korea to let it investigate the fatal shooting of a Seoul tourist, saying southerners are "outraged and shocked" by the killing.
Relations chilled after a North Korean soldier shot dead housewife Park Wang-Ja at the Mount Kumgang resort on July 11 when she strayed into a off-limits military zone.
"North Korea has not yet taken any reasonable and sincere steps, as 10 days have already passed since the fatal shooting of a Mount Kumgang tourist,” Prime Minister Han Seung-Soo told a cabinet meeting Tuesday.
"It's very regrettable."
The North has expressed regret at the death but blames the South for the incident and refuses to let it send an official investigation team to the scene.
Seoul has suspended tours to Kumgang which earn the impoverished communist state tens of millions dollars a year.
Han reaffirmed that the tours would not resume until South Korea secures a firm guarantee of safety. "North Korea should allow South Korean investigators to conduct on-site probes and prepare safety measures."
Unification ministry spokesman Kim Ho-Nyeon said South Koreans are "outraged and shocked by the shooting incident."
The foreign ministry says Seoul will raise the killing at the ASEAN Regional Forum on security in Singapore this week, which both sides will attend.
Seoul had also suggested it would halt a second tour to North Korea unless safety is guaranteed.
But Han said Monday that the second tour, to the North's border city of Kaesong, would continue.
"The government is not considering suspending the Kaesong tours yet," he told parliament.
"A very careful review is needed as the Kaesong tours have a very significant meaning in inter-Korean relations."
The North reacted furiously after conservative president Lee Myung-Bak took office in February and promised a firmer line on cross-border relations. It cut official ties in protest.
- AFP/yb
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