hankyoreh

Lotte Tour, a subsidiary of Lotte Group, withdrew its application for permission to visit North Korea to have consultations regarding running tours to the ancient capital city of Gaeseong (Kaesong), the Unification Ministry said on March 22.

Until Lotte Tour cancelled its planned visit, the Ministry of Unification reportedly had mulled over how to address Lotte Tour’s application - either an approval of the visit but a disapproval for Lotte Tour to gain the rights to Gaeseong, or disapproval on both counts. The government reportedly favors Hyundai Asan, the North’s original choice, as the tour operator.

According to a Lotte Tour executive, as the company has judged that this is not the right time for pushing ahead with a visit to North Korea, it postponed its plan, meaning that the conflict between Lotte Tour and Hyundai Asan, which also wanted the rights to run tours to Gaeseong, has cooled off for now.

However, since Lotte Tour has not said it would give up its bid for the Gaeseong tour rights, the clash between the two firms is expected to arise again in the near future.

Prior to this, amid worsening relations between Hyundai Asan and the North over Hyundai’s dismissal of then-vice chairman Kim Yun-kyu on allegations of embezzlement in August 2005, North Korea has moved to attract other companies to bid on the rights to Gaeseong tourism, including Lotte Tour.

After the North officially gave Lotte Tour a bid offer in September 2005, Lotte Tour July last year submitted an application to the Ministry of Unification to visit North Korea at that time. But the government reportedly persuaded Lotte Tour to withraw that planned visit, citing that Lotte Tour’s bid for the Gaeseong tourism rights could lead to too fierce a competition for the rights, or to legal problems, based on the government’s position that Hyundai Asan should come before Lotte Tour in getting the rights to Gaeseong tourism. The North’s October nuclear test was the final straw, with Lotte Tour giving up on that earlier visit shortly afterward.

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