Kumgang adopts identification cards

Paper identification of tourist visiting Mount Kumkang will be replaced with electronic identification cards, the size of a credit card, starting this month, Hyundai Asan Corp. said yesterday.
With the adoption of the electronic card, the long waits and inconvenience that tourists visiting North Korea have experienced will be reduced by up to 30 percent, the South Korean company said.
The card will be initially provided to tourists staying in North Korea for three days and later will be gradually applied to two-day visitors.
The company said that although the cards are currently limited to identifying the tourist and buying a few North Korean products, it would later be developed into a “master card” that will allow tourists to use all the facilities within the Kumkang tourist site.