North Korea approves Japanese tours to Mount Kumgang
TOKYO (AP) -- A South Korean travel agent will soon offer tours allowing Japanese and Korean residents of Japan to visit North Korea's most famous mountain, the company said Friday.
Hyundai Merchant Marine Japan Co. will begin luxury cruise tours to Mount Kumgang on the North's east coast starting October 20, said company spokesman Masao Minami.
Minami said his travel agency, a subsidiary in Japan of South Korea's Hyundai group companies, obtained North Korea's approval in August for offering tours of Mount Kumgang, which means Diamond Mountain in Korean.
North Korea has allowed such trips for Koreans in South Korea since 1998, but Japanese and Korean residents in Japan were not allowed to board the cruise ships.
On the new tour, Japanese and Korean travelers from Japan will first travel to South Korea and then board a cruise ship either in South Korea's southern port of Pusan, or Tonghae, a port on the South's east coast, Minami said.
No formal ties
Travelers from Japan will have to carry a special entry permit, issued by North Korea and handed to them in South Korea, before going on a cruise trip to North Korean territory, Minami said.
Minami said his travel agency expects about 23,000 tourists to visit Mount Kumgang from Japan in the first year. That figure is about 1 percent of the Japanese tourists who made trips to South Korea last year.
Travel fees of a four-day tour of Mount Kumgang will range from 68,000 yen ($636) to 184,000 yen ($1,720), depending on the ship's cabin classes, he said.
Those fees include port-entry fees and charges for processing visa applications, he said.
Japan, which established diplomatic relations with South Korea in 1965, has no formal ties with the North's communist government. Both sides have in recent years agreed to make efforts toward normalizing ties, and North Korean officials visited Japan in August.
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2000
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