Pyongyang to Review Joint Ventures With Hyundai

North Korea announced yesterday that it would review all of its business dealings with Hyundai Group, including the Mt. Geumgang tour, taking issue with the dismissal of former Hyundai Asan vice chairman Kim Yun-gyu, the company official in charge of handling its joint ventures with North Korea.

In the aftermath of this announcement, tour projects with the North such as the tours to Gaesong and Mt. Baekdu that the Hyundai Group promoted will likely come to a halt, and inter-Korean relations are also showing signs of an approaching deadlock.

The North’s Asia Pacific Peace Committee (NAPPC), Hyundai Asan’s business partner in the North, attacked the Hyundai Group’s decision to sack Kim through in a statement read by its spokesman, saying, “With our mutual trust broken, we cannot help but review and readjust our all business dealings with Hyundai.”

The NAPPC insisted, “We believed that the late Hyundai Group founder Chung Joo-young, the late chairman Chung Mong-hun, and Kim all shared the same sense of duty,” adding, “The reason we oppose the Hyundai Group’s action in which Kim was ousted from his post is due to this lost sense of obligation.”

On top of that, NAPPC said that the seven cooperation projects with Hyundai Asan that it promised to promote in August 2000 were to be abolished. The seven cooperation projects include the development of tour sites such as Mt. Baekdu and Mt. Myohyang, the construction of Limjin River Dam and linking railroad lines between the two Koreas.

The NAPPC insisted, “Because the seven cooperation projects’ partner has disappeared, we see no reason to be bound by the agreement.” In addition, the committee said, “The Hyundai Group also has its own way and future,” and it indirectly asked for the group to reshuffle its personnel, saying, “If the leadership of Hyundai ousts its treacherous retainers and makes its way in the right direction, we will show ourselves to be magnanimous in permitting the tour to Mt. Geumgang.”