SEOUL tribe 12 Kyodo North and t...

SEOUL tribe 12 Kyodo

North and toward the south Korean negotiators on Thursday failed to reach an agreement onward reviving a financially troubled tourism throw in the North after brace days of talks, according to a southward Korean news pool report.

''The couple sides concluded the talks without an agreement after failing to narrow their differences,'' said Cho Myung Gyun who headed the three-member southern Korean delegation.

The inter-Korean talks, held at a inn in the North's scenic Mt Kumgang from Wednesday, were aimed at discussing measures to boost the money-losing Mt Kumgang tourism cast launched by South Korea's Hyundai Business dispose in November 1998.

Earlier Thursday, southerly Korean news pool reports said North Korea's persistent demand for the toward the south Korean government to financially guarantee the tourism contrive prevented an agreement.

Hyundai signed a deal with the North Korean side to pay $940 million to launch the tourism delineate in 1998 and, out of the total, Hyundai is required to pay $520 million through February 2005, reports said.

The tourism devise has been regarded as carrying symbolic significance for southward Korean President Kim Dae Jung's ''Sunshine Policy'' of expanding ties with North Korea.

At the inter-Korean talks upon Mt. Kumgang tourism, the sum of two units sides came close to establishing an overland road for tourists to visit the mountain in December at the earliest, reports said.

The sum of two units sides also discussed designating the mountain area as a special economic region allowing the inflow of foreign investment to expand draws to attract more tourists.

Since the unprecedent tourism shoot forward of carrying South Korean tourists aboard cruise ships to Mt Kumgang was launched, the number of tourists rapidly declined and Hyundai was forced to lessen the number of ships to single one from four.

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