Pilot Overland Tour to North Korea Starts
2003-02-14
A pilot overland tour to Mt. Geumgang in North Korea started Friday (Feb. 14) as some 500 South Korean tourists left via a newly-built temporary road running through the heavily fortified demilitarized zone (DMZ) that divides the two Koreas.
A group of 498 figures, headed by Hyundai Asan Chairman Chung Mong-hun,the operator of the Mount Geumgang tourist project, arrived at the Unification Observatory in Goseong, Gangwon Province near the east coast early in the day before setting out along the road in the DMZ.
The group includes Hyundai Asan officials, investors, lawmakers, leaders of South Korean civic groups, government officials and reporters. Envoys from eight countries, including Hungary, Turkey and Thailand, took part in the trip.
The government held a ceremony at the observatory to mark the opening of the temporary road before the group departed for the North.
Hyundai earlier said the North has given the go ahead for South Korean TV broadcasters to film the group entering the border area.
Last week, the company completed an inspection of the overland route by surveying the condition of the road and immigration facilities.
The inspection trip marked the first time South Korean civilians have crossed the DMZ outside the truce village of Panmunjeom in half a century.
Hyundai said the North will be ready to welcome the South Korean group with a brass band at 1:00 p.m. Friday, when the group was expected to complete crossing the northern part of the 4-km-wide DMZ.
After arriving in the North, Hyundai and the North's Asia-Pacific Peace Committee will hold an event at a cultural center at Mount Geumgang in which South Korean scholar Kim Yong-ok will recite a congratulatory poem and a North Korean vocalist will give a performance.
The North's provision of personnel for the event, coupled with its guarantee of South Korean broadcasters' coverage, reflects its will to put the tourist project on the right track, an official at Hyundai Asan said.
The two Koreas have built the temporary road as part of efforts to reconnect two cross-border railways -- the Gyeongui line on the west side and the Donghae line on the east side of the peninsula.
The land route enables the travel time to the resort from the South to be shortened. Currently, South Koreans spend five to six hours by ferry, while the land route will shorten the travel time to about 40 minutes.
Hyundai Asan plans to offer two-day and three-day overland trips to the public from Feb. 21.
Under an exclusive contract with North Korea, Hyundai began operating cruise services carrying South Korean tourists to the scenic mountain in November 1998.
The company then encountered financial difficulties because the expected rush of tourists to the mountain failed to materialize.
In a last-ditch effort to keep the project afloat, Hyundai Asan and North Korea agreed in 2001 to open an overland route across the border in a bid to increase the number of tourists to the mountain by cutting costs.
Source : www.korea.net
