U.S. envoy criticizes inter-Korean tourism project

South Korea's tourism business to Mount Geumgang, a resort in North Korea, appears to serve as a financial revenue stream for the communist regime, Washington's point man on Pyongyang claimed Tuesday.

The project "seems to be designed to give money to the North Korean authorities," said Christopher Hill.

It was one of the most explicit assessments of the inter-Korean tourism program, and comes amid a heated controversy over whether the reclusive North is earning hard currency from the project to develop weapons of massive destruction (WMD).

North Korea conducted a nuclear test last Monday, prompting the U.N. Security Council to adopt a punitive resolution calling for wide-ranging arms and financial sanctions over the weekend.

"I have my own personal views about the relative merits of those projects," Hill told reporters, when asked about Washington's opinion of the tour business and a joint industrial complex in the North's border town of Kaesong. He was emerging from a meeting with South Korea's chief nuclear envoy Chun Yung-woo and Russia's top nuclear negotiator, Alexander Alexeyev.

The two inter-Korean ventures are seen as the crowning achievement of several years of appeasent by Pyongyang's southern neighbor.

But the so-called "sunshine policy" of rapprochement installed by previous South Korean president Kim Dae-jung has been called into question of late, with the six-way talks on the North Korean nuclear program deadlocked for roughly a year.

"I think (the Kaesong complex) is designed to make a long-term investment in human capital, and the (Geumgang project) seems to be designed to give money to the North Korean authorities. So I have my view that they are very two different kind of projects."

Arriving in Seoul earlier in the day, he urged South Korea and China need to form a united front to show North Korea that it will "pay a very high price" for its recent nuclear test.

"We need to work very hard with our partners and allies to implement the U.N. Security Council resolution," he said.

He was referring to the resolution unanimously adopted last weekend to punish the North for its claim last Monday of a successful nuclear test.

Resolution 1718, based on Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, calls for wide-ranging arms and financial sanctions on the North.

The U.S. intelligence authorities said radioactivity was found in air samples collected near the area of the explosion in North Korea. The findings officially confirmed the North's announcement.

But U.S. officials said the North's test appears to have been a failure, since the power of the blast was remarkably smaller than that of a usual nuclear explosion.

The size of the blast was less than 1 kiloton, a comparatively small detonation, they said. Each kiloton is equal to the force produced by 1,000 tons of TNT.

Hill said nonetheless, the communist state deserves to pay a "very high price for this type of reckless behavior."

The envoy makes frequent visits to Seoul to discuss ways of resolving the standoff over North Korea's nuclear program, but this time his trip is aimed at laying the groundwork for a forthcoming visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Rice is due to arrive in Seoul on Thursday, and plans to hold talks with her South Korean counterpart Ban Ki-moon later in the day.

Ban, who is now staying in New York to prepare for his new job as the next U.N. secretary-general, will return to Seoul early Thursday morning for the meeting, he added. Hill said Rice will broach the issue of South Korea's role in the U.S. initiative for nonproliferation highlighted by the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), a measure aimed at interdicting vessels and airliners believed to be carrying weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or related materials.

"We will be talking to South Korea about what it's doing. We consider this a dialogue in the proper sense of the word. We will be doing some talking, I think, about all issues, especially about how we implement the inspection aspects of the Resolution 1718, as you know, the PSI has a role to play on that."

The resolution calls for U.N. member states to take actions to stop cargo suspected of being linked with the North's illegal activities. But South Korea is cautious about whether to formally take part in the PSI due to concern over the possibility of a maritime clash with the North. Rice plans to make a six-day tour of Japan, South Korea and China this week to drum up support for the U.S. drive to squeeze North Korea. Her trip is aimed at following up on the U.N. resolution, which Rice described as a "very powerful tool" to stop North Korea's illicit activities.

The resolution is viewed as a guideline for member countries to take their own punitive steps against the communist state, but it leaves room for differing interpretations of its wording, experts said.

It will prove to be ineffective if South Korea and China maintain their assistance and business relations with the North, they added.

Before heading to the region, Rice sent a clear message for Seoul and Beijing to "share the burdens as well as the benefits" of stripping North Korea of its nuclear program.

"The purpose of my trip is to rally the support of our friends and allies in Northeast Asia for our comprehensive strategy," she said.

Her comments backed media speculation that the secretary will press the South Korean government hard to take its own punitive steps against Pyongyang in line with the resolution during her two-day stay here.

Asked about South Korea's reaction and Seoul's ongoing inter-Korean economic cooperation projects, Rice said the U.S. will wait and see what the Asian ally decides to do with its activities in general with North Korea.

"I suspect that a lot of it has to do with what North Korea does," she said in response to a question about the Mount Geumgang tourism business and a South Korea-assisted industrial complex in the North's city of Kaesong. "We will see what the South Koreans decide to do about their activities in general with North Korea."

Seoul, Oct. 17 (Yonhap News)