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SEOUL: Eight more South Korean workers Monday left a North Korean resort after the communist state threatened to expel them amid growing tensions over the killing of a Seoul tourist there, officials said.
The eight voluntarily left Mount Kumgang Monday morning and two more were due to depart later in the day, a spokesman for Seoul's unification ministry, in charge of cross-border relations, told AFP.
Two of the eight are from the state-run Korea Tourism Organisation and six were in charge of a new reunion centre for separated families at Mount Kumgang.
The east coast resort, funded and managed by Seoul, was a symbol of reconciliation until one or more soldiers shot a middle-aged housewife in the back after she strayed into a restricted military zone on July 11.
The military unit at Kumgang on Saturday described the killing as a "just self-defensive measure" and expressed anger that President Lee Myung-Bak had raised the issue with visiting US President George W. Bush on August 6.
It said in a statement that Lee was "clinging to the coat-tail of his American master" and announced it would start expelling "unnecessary" personnel from Sunday.
South Korea cancelled tours to the scenic resort immediately after the shooting and began withdrawing staff even before the North Korean eviction threat. It has so far pulled out 114 workers, the unification ministry said.
Hyundai Asan, the private firm which manages the resort and another cross-border tour, said 11 of its staff would withdraw on Wednesday.
By Thursday 117 "necessary" staff will remain at Mount Kumgang.
The North refuses to let South Korean officials hold an on-site investigation into the killing.
On Saturday its military accused Seoul of pushing cross-border relations to "a graver phase" after Bush expressed strong support for Seoul's request for a probe.
The tensions are a financial blow to Hyundai Asan, which makes about 45 per cent of its revenue from tour businesses in North Korea.
The company said tours to the North's border city of Kaesong had not been affected, with about 1,500 people going there every week.
Relations between the two nations have soured since Lee came to power and promised a firmer line with the North, including linking major economic aid to progress in denuclearisation.
- AFP/yb
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