Secret Deal on Tours Alleged

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Secret Deal on Tours Alleged

The Grand National Party asserted Sunday that Hyundai Asan Corp. secretly agreed to pay $22 million in overdue fees for the Mount Kumgang tourism project to North Korea when the two sides agreed on an overland tourism project on June 8. The main opposition party disclosed four documents signed by Kim Yoon-kyu, president of Hyundai Asan, and Kang Jong-hun, secretary of North Korea's Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, to support its claim.

"The fact that Hyundai promised to provide overdue fees even before the South Korean government decided to hand over the troubled tourism project to the Korea National Tourism Organization means that the government had secretly guaranteed the provision of funds," Kwon Chul-hyun, the GNP spokesman, said. He added that the government and Hyundai had deceived the South Korean people, saying Hyundai's promise to North Korea to provide payments based on an October 1998 accord directly contradicts the recent an-nouncement by the government and Hyun-dai that payments would be provided based on the number of tourists.

One of the documents also contains a clause on completing the construction of a sports stadium in Pyongyang by February 2002. Mr. Kwon raised a suspicion that Hyundai may be planning to build yet another stadium in Pyong-yang in addition to the one already in progress.

Reacting to the news, a Unification Ministry official said, "The government never said the 1998 accord on the Mount Kumgang tourism project had been nullified."

A Hyundai official also said, "The stadium issue had never come up because it is not directly related to the Mount Kumgang project." He added that Hyundai had never intended to hide the agreement from the public.

Mr. Kwon also said that high-ranking government officials and President Kim Dae-jung's close aides were visiting North Korea via a third country to hasten the return visit to Seoul by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. "There are reports that the visits are really intended to attend the ceremony commemorating the seventh anniversary of the late North Korea leader Kim Il-sung's death," said Mr. Kwon. "Analysts say the fact that the Korea National Tourism Organization hurriedly sent 30 billion won [$23 million] recently to North Korea has something to do with the anniversary."



by Lee Soo-ho

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