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South Korean shot dead in North | |
(2 days later) | |
A South Korean woman has been shot dead by a North Korean soldier in a special tourism zone in the mountains of North Korean, officials from the North say. | |
The 53-year-old is said to have strayed into a restricted area in the Mount Kumgang resort on the east coast. | |
A South Korean official said trips would be suspended pending an inquiry. | |
The resort has attracted more than one million South Korean visitors since 1998, and correspondents say this is the first incident of its kind. | |
The tours are managed by South Korea's Hyundai group. | |
Heavily policed | |
According to North Korean officials, the woman had strayed into a restricted area in the early hours of Friday morning, failed to heed a warning, and was shot dead. | |
Her body has been returned to South Korea, where it is undergoing forensic examination. | |
South Korea's Unification Minister, Kim Ho-nyeon, who handles cross-border relations, said the woman had been shot after entering a fenced-off military area. | |
He said a major investigation was under way. | He said a major investigation was under way. |
The Mount Kumgang resort offers South Koreans hotels, stores, a golf course and a spa - but it is also situated in a strategic naval zone. | |
The BBC's John Sudworth in Seoul says access to the special tourism zone is tightly controlled, and its border heavily policed. | |
Our correspondent says the resort - one of two North Korean tourist programmes - is one of the most visible symbols of the efforts by the two Koreas to engage in closer economic co-operation over the past decade. | |
The ventures have earned North Korea hundreds of millions of dollars in badly needed foreign currency. | |
The killing has overshadowed an earlier announcement by the South Korean President, Lee Myung-bak, that he wanted to re-open the stalled dialogue with North Korea. | |
In a shift from his previously tough stance, Mr Lee also offered to resume food aid to the North. |