hankyoreh

vice-chairman of the Mt. Keumgang Business Association wipes his eyes after hearing the news of the South Korean government’s proposal to hold talks on resuming tourism at Mt. Keumgang at a later date

By Kang Tae-ho, senior staff writer

“I have to wonder whether the government is really committed to resuming tourism at Mt. Keumgang.”

These were the comments of a member of the Mt. Keumgang Business Association on Aug. 27 over Seoul’s decision to push the date for working-level talks on the resort’s reopening back once again to Oct. 2. A study by the association found that over 50% of the 49 companies at the tourism complex in North Korea had gone under in the past five years. The remaining two dozen have long been stretched perilously thin, mortgaged to the hilt and facing suspended operations.

The sense of desperation is far deeper than with Kaesong Industrial Complex tenant companies, the member said on condition of anonymity.

“I can’t understand this difference between the Korean Peninsula’s east (Mt. Keumgang) and west (Kaesong) in North Korea policy,” he added. “Kaesong reopened after 133 days, but it‘s going on 2,000 days since Mt. Keumgang shut down. I don’t see why they keep putting it off.”

On Aug. 27, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification made a proposal through the Panmunjeom liaison official for working-level talks between authorities to resume the tourism project be pushed back to Oct. 2. This would put the date one week after Sept. 25, the government’s initially proposed date, and more than a month after the period between late August and early September requested by Pyongyang.

“With actions currently under way after the agreement at inter-Korean working-level talks for reunions of divided families, and discussions continuing toward the development-oriented normalization of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, our decision was that we could hold more suitable and effective talks [on the Mt. Keumgang] issue if we delayed them by about one week,” said a Ministry of Unification official.

North Korea initially proposed talks on Aug. 22 for resuming tourism at Mt. Keumgang. When Seoul suggested holding off until Sept. 25, it responded with another proposal to hold the talks in late August or early September. It also agreed to working-level meetings for family reunions on Aug. 23, despite Seoul having not accepted its offer for talks the day before. This was something of a concession from Pyongyang, which generally maintains that the tourism and family reunion issues are linked.

On the issue of resuming tourism at Mt. Keumgang, a senior Ministry of Unification official merely reiterated, “several things need to be examined first.” When asked to elaborate, the official said, “It’s already there in the press reports.”

The reports in question describe fears that foreign currency payments for tours could end up being diverted and used to fund nuclear weapons and missiles.

But most of the news outlets issuing the reports have failed to mention that the Kaesong complex provides North Korea with more foreign currency than the Mt. Keumgang resort.

A similar argument was made in an Aug. 21 meeting with foreign and domestic reporters by Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae to explain the Park Geun-hye administration’s “trust-building process” approach to North Korea policy. Ryoo said that the Mt. Keumgang tourism was “not something where there are a lot of complex issues or conditions tied up. But we need to consider just where the Mt. Keumgang tourism issue fits in the broader context of inter-Korean relations.”

The remarks drew a barrage of questions from a member of the Mt. Keumgang Business Association.

“Aren’t the Kaesong workers paid in foreign currency?” he asked. “Can you think of any cases where someone visits a foreign country and doesn’t pay anything? Don’t they know that all revenue from Mt. Keumgang apart from visa costs goes back to South Korea?”

While it remains unclear whether the government is approaching Kaesong and Mt. Keumgang from two different perspectives, Ryoo, who called Kaesong the “priming pump” for inter-Korean relations, has remained tight-lipped about the mountain resort.

But both have served as symbols of inter-Korean exchange and cooperation, as well as forums for communication where residents can have dialogue. Past opinion polls showed many South Koreans supporting the resumption of Mt. Keumgang tours.

By asking to postpone the talks on the resort again until Oct. 2, the South Korean government is opening itself up to criticisms that it is sacrificing the project for domestic political ends. In particular, it has disregarded the dates proposed by North Korea, which originally asked for talks on Aug. 22 and responded to the Sept. 25 date with a request for late August or early September. The question now is whether North Korea, which already made one concession on its principle of linking the resort and family reunion issues, is prepared to make another.

“North Korea right now wants improvement in inter-Korean relations, so they are expected to propose holding the talks sooner. But the South Korean government is continuing to deal with North Korea in the same uncooperative way, which could prevent an improvement in relations,” said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor at Dongguk University.

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