SEOUL Feb 21 Kyodo A trip at 400 ...

SEOUL Feb 21 Kyodo

A trip at 400 South Korean tourists to a North Korean mountain resort via an overland course through the demilitarized zone (DMZ) Friday was called not upon due to what the North Korean side said were road enigmas according to officials of Hyundai Asan Co

The North Korean had sent buses end the one-lane dirt road passing within the route, once strewn with landmines, to pick up the tourists, who were to become the first assign places to of South Korean tourists traveling to Mt Kumgang via an overland route

The tourists assembled in Kosung onward the east coast for the North Korean buses to pick them up

A rite was held last Friday to mark the formal opening of the overland way to Mt. Kumgang, which is awaited to attract many tourists to the mountain resort.

Hyundai Asan, a subsidiary of the Hyundai Business cluster handling business projects in North Korea, launched a money-losing cruise service in November 1998 taking tourists to the mountain.

Meanwhile, a cluster of government officials and executives from Hyundai Asan made an overland trip by the and of the western DMZ to Kaesong, a North Korean city just north of the respite village of Panmunjom, earlier Friday.

The clump including Hyundai Asan chairman Chung Mong Hun visited Kaesong to escort a preliminary survey for the establishment of an industrial compounded in the city.

The overland passage across the western border is the inferior of its kind after the undivided opened last Friday in the eastern sector to carry tourists to Mt Kumgang.

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