Korean tensions rise after tourist is shot

Published on Friday 11 July 2008 22:08

A NORTH Korean soldier fatally shot a South Korean tourist yesterday at a mountain resort in the communist nation, prompting the South to suspend a high-profile tourism programme just as its new president sought to rekindle strained ties between the divided countries.

The death of the 53-year-old woman, who the North said had ventured into a restricted area on a pre-dawn stroll at a beach, followed a series of hostile North Korean moves against the South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak.

Since Mr Lee entered office in February taking a tougher line on the North, Pyongyang has expelled South Korean officials from joint economic projects, labelled Mr Lee a "traitor", and warned of renewed fighting between the Koreas.

The shooting happened hours before Mr Lee delivered a speech to the new South Korean parliament, where he extended a peace offering to the North by calling for talks to resume between the countries and offered humanitarian aid.

The North claimed that the victim, Park Wang-ja, crossed three-quarters of a mile into a fenced-off military area, and fled when a soldier shouted at her to stop – still running after a warning shot was fired, according to the company running the tours, Hyundai Asan.

Ms Park was fatally shot at about 5am, just 200 yards short of the fence, the North said. She suffered two gunshot wounds from behind – in her chest and hip. Mr Lee has launched an official investigation into the shooting and called on North Korea to "co-operate actively" with it.

Meanwhile, South Korea has suspended Diamond Mountain tours. Some 1,200 tourists at the resort will complete their trips as scheduled, if they choose to do so. The resort opened in 1998 in a heavily militarised area near the border between the Koreas. Mobile rocket-launchers dot the hillsides along the road to the resort and the coast has been home to a major North Korean naval base.