Tour buses lumber north to historic Kaesong
Published: 05 Dec. 2007, 21:41
South Korean visitors pose for a picture yesterday on Seonjuk Bridge in Kaesong, where Jung Mong-ju, a high-level official and well-known academic in the Goryeo Dynasty, was killed in 1392 by Lee Bang-won. Lee later became the third king of the Joseon Dynasty. [Joint Press Corps]
The one-day overland tour of Kaesong, a 90-minute drive from Seoul, offers ordinary South Koreans an unusual glimpse of the North, one of the world’s most isolated nations, said officials at Hyundai Asan, the company that offers the tour.
It is the second tourism project between the two Koreas by Hyundai Asan, a unit of the South Korean Hyundai conglomerate in charge of most business projects involving the North. Nine years ago it began a tour program to the North’s east coast mountain of Kumgang.
So far, the mountain resort has attracted some 1.5 million tourists, mostly South Koreans. North Korea receives $50 for every $300 trip to the mountains. The one-day tour of Kaesong costs 180,000 won ($195) per tourist, with North Korea keeping $100 for each person, Hyundai Asan said.
Among the first batch of 360 tourists to Kaesong were 87-year-old Kim Yoon-kyung and four-year-old Shim Joo-eun, the South Korean company said. They left Seoul at around 6 a.m. and were scheduled to return around 5:00 p.m., an official at Hyundai Asan said.
The tour of Kaesong offers visits to historic Buddhist temples, scenic waterfalls and other legacies of the city, which was the capital of the Goryeo Dynasty that ruled the peninsula between A.D. 918 and 1392, the company said.
Kaesong is also the site of an inter-Korean industrial complex with some 26 South Korean companies manufacturing clothes and kitchenware there.
For years South Korea has been engaging in economic cooperation with the North as part of its effort to bridge the economic gap with its impoverished neighbor and prepare for reunification. The effort is gaining momentum as North Korea has started disabling its nuclear weapons program and its relationship with the United States is improving.
The deputy prime ministers of the two Koreas are in a three-day meeting in Seoul to discuss a wide range of economic cooperation projects that South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il agreed to during their summit in October.
Yonhap
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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