North Korea on Thursday proposed inter-Korean talks at Mt. Kumgang on Jan. 26-27 to resume package tours to the mountain resort and the city of Kaesong. The proposal came in a message to the Unification Ministry through the truce village of Panmunjom. North Korea's Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, which handles the tours, said in the message, "It is regrettable that Mt. Kumgang and Kaesong tours have been suspended for a year and six months."

Seoul suspended the Mt. Kumgang tours in July 2008 after a North Korean soldier shot and killed a South Korean tourist there. The North suspended the Kaesong tours in December the same year.

If the tours resume, a big hurdle to an inter-Korean summit would be removed, experts speculated. Since July, when it began launching charm offensives to Seoul, Pyongyang has repeatedly been angling for a possible inter-Korean summit. At the same time, the North has been calling for resumption of the Mt. Kumgang and Kaesong tours through non-governmental channels including Hyundai Asan, the South Korean operator of the tours.

A government official said, "They need dollars as their economy has worsened, and it seems that they're trying to find out what we really think of the question of improving inter-Korean relations." The North earned about US$500 million in cash from the Mt. Kumgang tours over 10 years.

Resumption of the tours "depends on whether the North can revise the inter-Korean agreement regarding South Korean citizens in the North to certainly guarantee their safety," a Unification Ministry official said.

Another senior government official said, "If the North promises to ensure the safety of South Koreans visiting or working there, other issues like finding the truth about the death of the South Korean tourist and getting the North to pledge to prevent the recurrence of such incidents become secondary." The talks are likely to happen. The senior government official told reporters last November that if the North makes a formal proposal for such talks, "We'll give it a good review."

Meanwhile, the two sides agreed to meet in Kaesong on Jan. 19 to review results of a joint fact-finding trip to foreign industrial parks in December. South Korean officials reportedly plan to bring up the matter of South Korean citizens' safety in the North.

But a Cheong Wa Dae official said that the Asia-Pacific Peace Committee does not seem powerful enough to represent the North Korean regime. "Officials from top authorities like the United Front Department should be present at the talks to discuss revising the agreement on the safety of South Koreans," he added.

Another variable is that the South Korean government is aware that the tour projects are a source of cash for the North Korean regime.