NKorea pressures SKorea to restart joint tours

South Korean tourists watch a train running on a rail, which the two Koreas hope to reconnect as part of an agreement reached at a historic summit of Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong Il in 2000, at the Imjingak Pavilion in Paju near the demilitarized zone of Panmunjom, South Korea, Thursday, March 4, 2010. North Korea warned Thursday it would scrap agreements with South Korean on stalled joint tour programs in the North if Seoul doesn't quickly agree to restart them. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

SEOUL, South Korea – Cash-strapped North Korea warned Thursday it would scrap agreements with South Korea concerning stalled joint tour programs in the North unless Seoul quickly agrees to restart them.

South Korea suspended tours to the North’s scenic Diamond Mountain resort in 2008 after a North Korean soldier fatally shot a southern tourist who allegedly entered a restricted military area. Later that year, the North pulled the plug on another Seoul-run tour to the ancient city of Kaesong amid high tensions.

The North has recently expressed its willingness to restart the tour programs — a legitimate source of hard currency to the impoverished country. South Korea, however, says the North must first accept its calls for a joint investigation into the tourist’s death and the establishment of measures to prevent future deaths.

On Thursday, the North’s Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee issued a warning that it would abolish all agreements and contracts on the tour programs if South Korea continue to block their resumption. It did not elaborate on what agreements it was referring to.

“They will be held wholly accountable for all the consequences to be entailed by the failure to resume the tours,” said the statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

In response, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said it had no intention of softening its demands. Spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said South Korea wants measures to guarantee the safety of tourists and convincing North Korean explanations of the shooting death.

North Korea has recently reached out to Seoul and Washington following months of tension over its nuclear and missile programs. Analysts say the about-face shows the regime is feeling the pinch from sanctions imposed after its May nuclear test. — AP