(EDITORIAL from the Korea Times on Nov. 19)

Desolate mountain resort

Little could describe the currently chilly relationship between the two Koreas
better than deserted Mt. Geumgang resort in the North.

The cross-border tour program, which marked its 10th anniversary Tuesday, has
been suspended for more than four months since the deadly shooting of a South
Korean woman there.
It's sad to think the scenic mountain, once the symbol of an inter-Korean thaw,
turned into the portrait of a stalemate ??? just another steep peak to pass over
for normalizing estranged ties.
Over the past decade, nearly two million South Koreans have visited the mountain
resort just north of the eastern border to provide tourism income of up to $480
million in hard currency to Pyongyang.
The tour, which cracked the world's hardest shell for the first time in half a
century, even survived the crises of two naval battles in the West Sea in 1999
and 2002 as well as the North's nuclear test in 2006, and saw two inter-Korean
summits.
Now, however, not just the tour but also its sister project ??? a trip to the
ancient Goryo Dynasty's capital of Gaeseong ??? could be in danger without a
breakthrough in deadlocked inter-Korean relations anytime soon. Only last week,
Pyongyang threatened to ban all cross-border traffic unless Seoul stops
anti-North activities.
These refer to Seoul-Washington discussions on emergency plans in the case of
North Korea's sudden collapse, the dispersion of leaflets denouncing Kim Jong-il
by some private groups and Seoul's joint motion for a U.N. resolution on North
Korea's human rights situations.
To put it quite bluntly, just one new factor was enough to turn the seemingly
smooth inter-Korean reconciliation back to time-old hostility ??? the change in
the occupant of Cheong Wa Dae.
The death of the South Korean tourist resulted in the prolonged stoppage of the
tour, but restarting it is no longer possible by just belatedly tackling this
particular incident.
This is also why the Unification Ministry's renewed calls for discussing its
resumption Tuesday ring rather hollow unless it is followed by a "bigger- framed
change of stance up above," as one analyst put it.
In a way, the fatal shooting of the tourist straying into an off-limits area well
demonstrated the characteristics ??? or the limit ??? of the "safari-like"
cross-border tour under current inter-Korean circumstances: You can watch them
within a boundary. The moment you step out it, you risk your life.
How does one change the reclusive North and open wider to outside world, then
President Lee once criticized the "sunshine policy," saying it was the South that
stripped itself instead of having the North shed its thick layers of isolation.
But the tourism business and a joint industrial park in Gaeseong meant the North
has taken off at least its outermost coat. All Seoul needs is more patience and
perseverance.
Lee links all matters regarding the Korean Peninsula, including his conditional
endorsement of a possible Kim Jong-il-Obama summit, to the North's
denuclearization, even more so than the next U.S. administration. In a worst-case
scenario, Seoul may be reduced to a non-participant in rapidly moving detente in
this part of the world.
An inter-Korean thaw and nonproliferation could ??? and should ??? be a two-track
process. More important than one person's death is the safety of all Koreans. All
Lee has to do is simple ??? show a little more respect for his predecessors and
his counterpart in the North.
(END)