What was it that U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said he “could not understand” about package tours to North Korea’s Mt. Kumgang? His remarks on Tuesday are in sharp contrast with the government's perception that the tourism project is an economic cooperation project led by the private sector and has nothing to do with the UN Security Council sanctions aimed at preventing North Korea’s development of weapons of mass destruction.

Cash Flow

Hill's remark that the Mt.Kumgang package tours are a project that “is designed to give money” to the North hint at the suspicion that the cash generated by the project is going into North Korea's WMD development. The Unification Ministry says Hyundai paid some US$950 million to the North since 1998: $450 million for seven major economic cooperation projects and $451.52 million for tourism. Every year, some $18 million goes into the North for admitting tourists.

This is not the first time the U.S. has taken issue with the cash Seoul pays to Pyongyang for the package tours. But Hill's remark comes in the wake of the UNSC resolution against the North over its nuclear test, so pundits expect a UNSC committee that will monitor the resolution’s implementation to take a good look at whether the money pays for WMD development.

Tour buses head for Mt. Kumgang after leaving the Customs, Immigrations and Quarantine office on the inter-Korean border on Sunday.

Government Support

Experts say the direct and indirect financial support Seoul has been providing to the North for the project cannot be separated from the UNSC resolution. The government gave the North W21.5 billion from the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund for package tours to Mt. Kumgang in 2002, and W7.904 billion for field trips for teachers and students in 2004 and 2005. In addition, it paid W2.72 billion to build and repair roads in the mountain in 2004 and W2.3 billion to set up fire extinguishers this year. It also gave W90 billion to the Korea Tourism Organization to buy facilities there in 2001.

“As the government is the party responsible for intercepting materials that could be used for WMD, if it also gives financial support to the North it could be a significant source of problems.” says North Korea specialist Nam Sung-wook of Korea University. Prof. Nam Joo-hong of Kyonggi University said "Government subsidies to the agricultural sector, say, are in violation of tariff agreements under the World Trade Organization. Strictly speaking, Pyongyang’s Asia Pacific Peace Committee, with which Hyundai is partnered for the package tours, is under control of the North Korean government, so this can cause a problem.”

Hyundai Fears

Hyundai Asan, which operates the tours, believes that if the government stops financial support, it will deal a blow to the project but will not end it. The government only pays W5 billion annually for field trips, it says, and the company posted W235 billion in sales and W14.2 billion in profit for the first time last year. Nonetheless, Hyundai Asan worries about the deteriorating situation, not least signs that the North is preparing a second nuclear test. “If North Korea pushes ahead with a second detonation, people will rush to cancel their reservations for Mt. Kumgang,” an insider said.

The number of visitors to the mountain surpassed the 300,00 mark last year but plummeted 22.6 percent to 198,338 between the beginning of this year and late September, compared to 256,147 during the same period last year.

(englishnews@chosun.com )