new tourism project for North Korea

from Yonhap News 8/2:

Hyundai Asan plans to spend US$3 billion for new tourism project in North Korea

"SEOUL, Aug. 2 (Yonhap) -- A South Korean company operating businesses in North Korea said Thursday it plans to spend US$3 billion by 2025 to develop an area on the North's east coast as a new tourist destination.

Yoon Man-joon, chief executive officer of Hyundai Asan, the North Korean business arm of Hyundai Group, said the company submitted the proposal to the North's authorities in June and that North Korea is expected to make a final decision as early as next month.

The new project calls for Hyundai Asan to develop the costal area from the North's eastern port city of Wonsan to Haegeumgang near Mt. Geumgang, where the South Korean company built a mountain resort in 1998.

If North Korea approves the proposal, it would be Hyundai Asan's third major economic project in the North, following the mountain resort and an industrial complex in the city of Kaesong near the inter-Korean border." ....

" Mount Geumgang, located just north of the border between the two Koreas near the east coast, has attracted more than 1.5 million visitors since 1998, Yoon said.

In the first seven months of this year, some 150,000, mostly South Korean guests, visited the scenic mountain.

Yoon said the company will make efforts to meet this year's target of 400,000 visitors as the North recently opened an inner side of the mountain.

The North's approval to open a wider part of Mount Geumgang and its surrounding area to tourists "indicated a normalization in relations between Hyundai and North Korea," Yoon said." ....

for the complete story see: http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/northkorea/2007/08/02/19/0401000000AEN20070802006300320F.HTML