SEOUL, July 9 (UPI) -- South Korean companies that have faced losses since the suspension of South Korea tourism to North Korea are urging programs to resume after a seven-year hiatus.
The tours of a panoramic mountain range in North Korea's Mount Kumgang Tourist Region stopped when a South Korean tourist was fatally shot in July 2008, but representatives from 49 South Korean firms called for a resolution on Tuesday, Voice of America reported.
"North and South Korea should resolve political differences that benefit neither and engage in a dialogue quickly with genuine interest," Lee Jong-heung, head of an association of the companies said at a press conference in Seoul.
Lee said South Korean corporations had incurred losses after the suspension of tourism that came after the May 24 sanctions, a South Korea measure against the North after the sinking of a South Korean navy warship in 2010.
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South Korean newspaper Kyunghyang Shinmun reported Hyundai Asan, the construction arm of conglomerate Hyundai Group, had incurred a cumulative loss of $892.6 million.
In addition to its tour programs of the Kumgang Tourist Region, Hyundai Asan operates travel to and from Kaesong, near the Korean demilitarized zone
Due to South Korea sanctions, the Kumgang program has incurred a loss of $770.2 million and the lower-profile Kaesong program has suffered $122.4 million in lost revenue.
A Hyundai Asan spokesman told Kyunghyang the revenue lost was calculated using past statistics. Before tourism was suspended, 300,000 South Koreans visited Mount Kumgang on an annual basis, and Kaesong drew 100,000 tourists every year.
The firm also has had to drastically cut staff, and has laid off 75 percent of its workforce due to the North-South standoff, leaving 262 workers in a business that once employed 1,000.
