hankyoreh

the president of tour operator Hyundai Asan

President Lee Myung-bak made it clear that tours to Mount Geumgang (Kumgang) would not resume until the South and the North are able to conduct a joint fact-finding investigation into the death of a South Korean woman and put into place measures to prevent such incidents from recurring as well as a guarantee of safety for tourists.

Speaking at a Cabinet meeting on July 16, President Lee said that protecting the lives of the people is the most important duty of the government, presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan quoted the president as saying.

The president took a stronger position in demanding action from the North. Lee urged North Korea to actively cooperate in a joint investigation, expressing his regret for the victim, who was shot by a North Korean soldier on July 11.

Lee said, “South Korea and its citizens have provided enormous assistance to North Korea through both governmental and non-governmental channels over the past decade. Every South Korean tourist goes to Mount Geumgang with the intention of helping North Korea. The fact that a North Korean soldier shot an unarmed tourist to death can never be accepted for any reason.”

Yoon Man-joon, CEO of Hyundai Asan, the tour operator, provided more details about the incident. He had recently returned from a trip to the Mount Geumgang resort during which he met with North Korean officials to discuss the possibility of a joint North-South investigation. Yoon reported that CCTV cameras at the Beach Hotel, where the tourist group was staying, show that the woman, identified only as Park, left the hotel at 4:18 a.m., 13 minutes earlier than the initially reported time of 4:31 a.m.

North Korean officials said Park was first spotted by the soldier at approximately 4:50 a.m. about 800 meters inside the fence surrounding the military zone and was killed about 300 meters inside the zone. The officials say that the soldier shot three live rounds after firing one blank, according to Yoon.

The results of the autopsy, as announced by the government’s investigative team, show that Park was shot in the back and hip and bled to death.

Seo Jung-seok of the National Institute of Scientific Investigation, who conducted the autopsy, said that Park is thought to have been shot from more than one or two meters away but that it was difficult to estimate a more exact firing distance because they had not been able to conduct an investigation at the scene of the incident. The size of the bullet holes was 0.5cm for each round fired and the size of each bullet was 5.5mm, Seo added.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]