|
Unification Minister Chung Dong-young met with Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun on Sunday to discuss a spat between the company and North Korea over a tourism project Hyundai Asan operates in the Kumgang Mountains.
A source connected to the matter said Wednesday the two discussed North Korean demands to reinstate Hyundai Asan vice chairman Kim Yoon-kyu, who was ousted over corruption charges, but the differences in opinion were wide. That suggests Chung asked for the disgraced executive to be reinstated.
It was the following day that Hyun posted a statement on the Hyundai Asan homepage saying that Kim had been removed due to corruption and rejected calls to reinstate the man who had for many years coordinated the tourism projects with the North.
The source said Hyun apparently asked Chung, who was on his way Pyongyang for an inter-Korean ministerial meeting, ¡°to give North Korean leader Kim Jong-il a personal letter urging normalization of the Kumgang Mountain tourism project" after the North in a fit of pique slashed the tourist quota in half. "Chung reacted negatively to passing on the personal letter and facilitating working-level contacts between Hyundai and North Korea,¡± the source said.
Chung confirmed his meeting with Hyun. "I met with Hyun to see if the government had room to mediate by getting concessions on both sides,¡± he told reporters in Pyongyang. ¡°But the next day Hyun made a public statement on the Internet, and the government's room to mediate narrowed."
Chung said, "Since the project included the government's sacrifice and support, and the people's tax money go into it, we are going to talk with the North." He said, "During the Liberation Day celebrations in Seoul, the government arranged direct talks between Hyundai and the North... It seems those talks were of little help."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
|
