North Korea wants to learn tourism know-how from China’s southern resort island of Hainan as it seeks to set up an international tourism zone at its scenic Mount Kumgang, according to the North’s ambassador to China on Wednesday.
Ji Jae-ryong, North Korea’s ambassador to China, made the remarks during a meeting with Luo Baoming, Hainan’s Communist Party chief and provincial governor, on Monday, the Chinese Communist Party said in an article posted on its website.
North Korea is seeking to attract foreign tourists to the Mount Kumgang resort on its east coast after unveiling a project to build the “Wonsan-Mount Kumgang international tourism zone” earlier this year.
The North’s mountain resort, developed by the South Korean company Hyundai Asan, opened in 1998 as a symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation, but Seoul halted tours in July 2008 after a North Korean soldier shot and killed a South Korean tourist who had strayed into a restricted military zone there.
During the meeting with Luo in Hainan, Ji said that “North Korea is currently accelerating construction of the Wonsan-Mount Kumgang international tourist zone.”
“We would like to learn more from Hainan’s experience, expand cooperation in areas such as tourism and fisheries, and make efforts to further strengthen the North Korea-China friendship,” Ji told Luo, according to the statement.
Luo told Ji that Hainan wants to “facilitate pragmatic cooperation” with North Korea in the field of tourism.
Under international sanctions over nuclear and missile ambitions, North Korea has promoted tourism as a source of earning much-needed hard currency since Kim took power in late 2011. (Yonhap)
