Seoul urges groups to cancel visits to NKorea over shooting
South Korea urged civic groups to cancel visits to North Korea in a further sign of worsening relations after the fatal shooting of a Seoul tourist in the communist state.
By Agencies |
SEOUL: South Korea on Thursday urged civic groups to cancel visits to North Korea in a further sign of worsening relations after the fatal shooting of a Seoul tourist in the communist state.
The unification ministry said it had stated its position to several groups whose members plan to visit the North next month.
Seoul has suspended tourist visits to the North's Mount Kumgang resort since a North Korean soldier shot dead housewife Park Wang-Ja there when she strayed into an off-limits military zone on July 11.
It now wants civic and other groups to call off visits elsewhere in the impoverished communist state.
The North blames the South for the killing and refuses to let it send an official investigation team to Kumgang.
"The government explained to the civic groups the current inter-Korean relations, and both sides exchanged opinions," ministry spokesman Kim Ho-Nyeon told a briefing, refusing to disclose details.
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The ministry, which handles cross-border ties, must by law authorise all trips to the North. The Korean Teachers and Educational Workers' Union said it had been asked to call off trips by some 100 members in August.
The ministry has also urged the leftist Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Democratic Labor Party to cancel trips.
"The ministry asked us to refrain from travelling to North Korea," teachers' union spokesman Hyun In-Cheol said.
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But Hyun said it would push to send about 100 teachers to a meeting with northern counterparts from August 10-14. "The Mount Kumgang incident is very regrettable, but we believe that civilian exchanges between the two Koreas should continue for the development of a future-oriented relationship," Hyun added.
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The ministry said it was not imposing a ban on all such visits, but wants trips by large groups cancelled. Seoul says trips to Kumgang, which earn the impoverished North tens of millions of dollars a year, will not resume until it secures a firm safety guarantee.
It raised the killing when the foreign ministers of both Koreas met briefly Wednesday on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum in Singapore. Details were not disclosed.
Relations were already tense before the shooting. 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.
Lee on Wednesday dismissed a request by his ruling party to send a special envoy to the North to end the impasse.
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