Global Courant
SEOUL – North Korea said it does not intend to “investigate” the South Korean leader of the Hyundai Group’s plan to visit Mount Kumgang in the north, the North Korean foreign ministry said on Saturday.
Hyundai Group chairman Hyun Jeong-eun wanted to visit in August and submitted applications to South Korea’s Unification Ministry, the Yonhap news agency reported Friday, citing an unnamed ministry official.
The late Hyundai founder Mr. Chung Ju-Yung was born in North Korea.
In response to the South’s media reports, the North said it has “neither been informed of the willingness of a South Korean character to visit nor is it aware of it and we do not intend to investigate it” .
“It is the policy of the…government that access by a South Korean character to its territory cannot be allowed,” North Korea said, adding that its policy is immutable and will be enforced going forward.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on Thursday selected a conservative scholar and an outspoken critic of North Korea’s human rights record as the country’s new unification minister to handle relations with Pyongyang in a cabinet reshuffle.
The nomination is likely to strain ties between the two Koreas. North Korea has long dismissed criticism of its rights conditions as part of a plot to overthrow its rulers. REUTERS
