The DPRK might include military officers among investigators looking into South Korean properties, Seoul's Yonhap News Agency reported citing an unnamed ministry official.
Tours to Mount Kumgang, launched in 1998 and run by South Korea 's Hyundai Asan Corp., was halted in 2008 soon after a South Korean female tourist was shot to death by a DPRK sentinel.
Tours to the border town of Kaesong was also suspended in the same year, rapidly souring inter-Korean ties. Earlier this year, the two sides held working-level talks on reopening the tours but failed to narrow differences on major issue
Seoul has reiterated its position that drawing up safety measures and launching an investigation into the shooting incident should come first before reopening the tours, but Pyongyang has claimed the preconditions have been already met.
The row over the tour programs deepened in early March after the DPRK threatened to revoke all inter-Korean deals related to tour programs, denouncing South Korea for blocking the resumption of the tours.
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S Korea regrets over DPRK to investigate its real estates in Kumgang area
SEOUL, March 18 (Xinhua) -- South Korea on Thursday expressed its "deep regret" to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea ( DPRK) after the later said it will launch investigation to South's all real estates inside the resort area of Mt. Kumgang.
Seoul's Unification Ministry confirmed in a press release that the DPRK informed South Korea via a recent fax message that it will look into all of the real estates owned by South Koreans in the resort area along its east coast. In response, the ministry said the country's position remains unchanged, reaffirming its demand for ensuring safety of its tourists first. Full story
Top Chinese, ROK diplomats exchange views on Korean Peninsula nuclear issue
BEIJING, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi Thursday discussed with Yu Myung Hwan, his counterpart from the Republic of Korea (ROK), the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue and the six-party process, according to a press release issued after the talks.
The statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry said they touched on regional and international issues of common concern during the talks, but it gave no further details on those issues. Full story
DPRK state media denounces U.S. for human rights reports
PYONGYANG, March 18 (Xinhua) -- The official news agency KCNA on Thursday slammed the U.S. "Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2009", describing them as "nonsensical documents without any scientific accuracy as they distorted human rights practices of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)."
"The United States was the worst country in the world, where human existence and security were not guaranteed and elementary rights to social life were wantonly violated," the agency's commentary said, adding the U.S. administration "abridged the freedom under various pretexts, including that of anti-terrorism." Full story
