SEOUL - NORTH Korea said yesterday it would eject South Koreans from a mountain resort in the communist country, in a further sign of fraying ties between the two sides.
The move comes after a South Korean tourist was fatally shot last month when she strayed into a military zone near the Mount Kumgang resort, angering Seoul and prompting a suspension of tours to the resort.
A spokesman for the North's military unit stationed in the area said in a statement it would expel all South Koreans it 'deems unnecessary' from the resort.
Tour operator Hyundai Asan said about 850 people, including 263 southerners from the company and its subcontractors, are working at the resort.
The North also warned it would take military actions against 'even the slightest hostile actions' in the area, and added that it would limit the passage of South Koreans and their vehicles through the heavily armed border crossing leading to the resort.
The army was taking those steps to cope with 'grave provocation' from South Korea, that is trying to pass on the blame to the North, the statement said.
It also flatly rejected the South's call for a joint probe into the shooting.
Seoul's Unification Ministry said it regretted the North's decision and called for Pyongyang's cooperation.
The government also said it was exploring appropriate measures to secure the safety of South Koreans in the resort. No details were given.
Seoul has said it could put on hold a separate tour programme to the North's western border city of Kaesong if strict safety measures for visitors are not assured.
'We will wait for the North's sincere steps over a fact-finding investigation with patience,' a spokesman for the Unification Ministry said.
A breakthrough may come this week, as South Korean President Lee Myung Bak will have a chance to talk with Pyongyang's No. 2 leader during his visit to the Beijing Olympics.
Reports said Mr Lee would meet Mr Kim Yong Nam, head of the presidium of the North's Supreme People's Assembly, during a luncheon hosted by China in Beijing.
North Korea said that housewife Park Wang Ja, 53, was shot after she strayed into a restricted military area and fled when a soldier ordered her to halt.
But South Korean investigators said that the victim was likely shot while she was standing still or walking slowly.
Ms Suh Jae Jean, a North Korea expert and the director of the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, said it would be 'inevitable for strained inter-Korean ties to continue for a while'.
But she said the North revealed it hoped to continue the tours by saying it will expel 'unnecessary' staff - not all staff - from the resort.
The tours earn the impoverished North tens of millions of dollars a year.
Ms Suh said the statement was part of the North's typical 'shock strategy' aimed at putting pressure on Seoul.
