From the Joong Ang Daily:
10/19/2006
Seo Ji-eun
Hyundai Asan Corp. is facing another tough challenge to its Mount Kumgang tour operation amid mounting pressure to suspend business due to suspicions that it has inadvertantly helped North Korea develop nuclear weapons.
So far the company is still in business, but it may be forced to withdraw.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said on Tuesday that the Mount Kumgang tour “seems to be designed to give money to the North Korean authorities.”
According to Hyundai Asan, North Korea has received up to $457 million since 1999 in return for allowing Mount Kumgang tours.
Experts point out that the reason the United States opposes the tourism business while not objecting to the Kaesong Industrial Complex, also operated by Hyundai Asan, is because the majority of payments from the tour company go directly to the North Korean government. Kim Sung-han, head researcher at the Institute of Foreign Affairs & National Security, said, “The United States views the Kaesong Industrial Complex as acceptable in that the major portion of capital injected into that project consists of labor costs of the North Korean workforces in actual operation there. However, Mount Kumgang is understood as being mainly for the sake of the regime.”
Political critics speculate that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a meeting with the President Roh Moo-hyun scheduled for today, may officially request a halt for the program. There is speculation of a second North Korean nuclear test, which would likely increase international sanctions against the North.
Officials at Hyundai Asan are discussing ways to retain the tour business, which accounted for 40 percent of revenue last year. Tourists to the scenic resort in the North have sharply decreased of late, making it hard for Hyundai Asan to achieve its annual goal of 350,000 visitors.
The North Korean business arm of Hyundai Group is mulling the delivery of rice, medicine and fertilizer to sustain cash flow and quell notions that it is aiding North Korea.
An executive from Hyundai Motor Co. said, “We are afraid consumers in the United States might be confused. We have no choice but to explain that Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Asan belong to different groups.”
