Overreaction May Have Caused Shooting of SK Tourist in N.K.

Evidence shows that the shooting that killed a South Korean tourist in the Mount Geumgang resort in North Korea is highly likely to have been caused by the North’s overreaction.

According to the Unification Ministry and Hyundai Asan, which organizes trips to the resort, a North Korean soldier’s shooting of a South Korean woman, Park Wang-ja, was confirmed Tuesday to be against North Korea’s laws as well as the inter-Korean agreement.

Article 28 of the Mount Geumgang Resort of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Law, legislated on Nov. 13, 2002 by North Korea’s standing committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly, says that one who violates this law and hampers the management and tourism business may be subject to pay damages and if the violation is serious, may be expelled.

Article 19 includes observation rules for tourists at the resort including not taking pictures unrelated to sightseeing and not entering areas designated by the resort management organization as off-limits or other restricted areas.

Even if a tourist enters the military zone in the North, the individual is fined or expelled according to the law.

The Rules on Entrance and Stay in the Mount Geumgang Resort set by the standing committee on April 29, 2004 also guarantee tourists’ inviolable rights.

A government source said, “If North Korea did not stop Park from crossing the military border properly, it is the North`s clear mistake. If it knew her identity and shot her, it is a serious overreaction.”

There is also growing suspicion that the time and cause of the accident, of which North Korea initially informed Hyundai Asan last Friday when the shooting happened, may be false.

The bottom line of Pyongyang’s explanation is that it asked Park, who stepped into the military zone, to stop, but she ran away about one kilometer in the direction of the beach so that it fired shots at 5 a.m.

But the statement released by the North`s Guidance Bureau for Comprehensive Development of Scenic Spots dropped “pursuing her for one kilometer” and changed the firing time to 4:50 a.m., 10 minutes earlier.

A North Korea expert said, “We cannot exclude the possibility that North Korean soldiers made a false report to cover up their mistake.”

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