North Korean soldier kills tourist from South

A North Korean soldier fatally shot a South Korean tourist yesterday at a mountain resort in the communist North, prompting the South to suspend the high-profile tour program, just as its new president sought to rekindle strained ties between the two.

The news of the unprecedented shooting of a 53-year-old woman at Diamond Mountain resort emerged just hours after the South’s new President Lee Myung-bak delivered a nationwide address calling for restored contacts between the two Koreas.

South Korea is to suspend future Diamond Mountain tours until an investigation is completed.

The other 1,200 tourists already at the resort are to complete their tours as scheduled by tomorrow, said Kim, the company that operates the resort.

“We regret that our tourist was killed,” Kim said, adding that Seoul “will take appropriate corresponding measures” pending an enquiry.

According to a North Korean account given to Hyundai Asan, the woman left her hotel around 4:30am to walk along the beach at the resort, but crossed deep into a fenced-off military area.

The woman, identified as Park Wang-ja, ran away when a North Korean soldier told her to halt after spotting her about a half-mile inside the fence.

Park fled as the soldier chased her and fired one warning shot, before she was shot dead at around 5am, the North said.

Park was shot twice from behind, said Cho Yong-seok, an official at the hospital in the South Korean city of Sokcho where her body was taken. One bullet hit her in the chest, causing her death, and another shot struck her left hip, he said.

The North informed Hyundai Asan about the shooting around 11.30am, more than six hours after the incident. There has no communication from the North Korean government to Seoul about the death.

About 1.9 million visitors, mostly South Koreans, have visited the area, including 190,000 this year, according to the South Korean Unification Ministry.