He also displayed a keen interest in President-elect Barack Obama, inquiring about the Democrat's stance on U.S.-North Korea relations.
In this May 17, 2007 file photo, a train passes the gate for the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) as South...
In this May 17, 2007 file photo, a train passes the gate for the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) as South Koreans wave "Unification flags" during a test train service near Dorasan Station in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea. Trains crossed into the heavily fortified DMZ for the first rail journey through the border dividing the two Koreas in more than half a century on the day. North Korea said Monday, Nov. 24, 2008 it will halt tours of its historic city of Kaesong and stop cross-border train service with South Korea starting next week because of Seoul's hard-line stance toward the communist nation. The Korean read " South and North Koreas Train Connect Train Example Service." (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, Pool, File)
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"I see no reason why the two countries should be so far apart if the U.S. policy changes," he said. "It would be better if the two countries were friendly in the future."
Though restrictive, the tours have been immensely popular among South Koreans since they began a year ago, with more than 110,000 tourists piling onto buses for the daylong visit to a city just 40 miles from Seoul but inaccessible for nearly 60 years.
North Korea's announcement Monday that the tours will be suspended has heightened fears that 10 years of progress in improving ties between the wartime rivals may be in danger of unraveling.
Another joint project, tours to Diamond Mountain on North Korea's east coast, have been suspended since July following the shooting death of a South Korean tourist. And the communist country, in detailing plans to restrict cross-border traffic next week amid deteriorating ties with Seoul's conservative government, said it would also suspend inter-Korean rail lines.
Kaesong, Korea's cultural and religious centerpiece before power shifted to Seoul in the 14th century, has a rich heritage and military history. During the three-year Korean War, control of Kaesong — located in the heart of the peninsula — was traded back and forth as the front shifted. When fighting stopped in 1953, Kaesong fell just north of the border.
Among those born in the north who longed to return home was the late founder of the conglomerate Hyundai Asan Corp. In 1998, Chung Ju-yung ceremoniously crossed the border with hundreds of cattle — repayment, he said, for stealing money from selling the family cow to pay his way to Seoul so many decades earlier.
His firm struck an agreement to start tours to Diamond Mountain, a resort just north of the border that later grew to include a golf course, spa, hotels and a theater featuring North Korean acrobats.
