The North Korean border city of Gaeseong has become a major source of tourism income for the cash-strapped communist nation, with hundreds of South Koreans riding across the heavily fortified border each day to visit the ancient capital city.

Yoon Man-joon, CEO of Hyundai Asan, says his company's new daily tourism programme to Gaeseong has attracted almost 10,000 South Koreans since its launch last month."All ten of our buses that run daily across the border are usually packed with diverse and youthful South Koreans, and it is also almost booked up until the end of January," he said.

 

Hyundai Asan is the South Korean operator of various inter-Korean economic projects, including the Mount Gumgang tourism project since 1997 and the construction of the Gaeseong Industrial Complex. The new tourism program features a one-day overland tour to Gaeseong, which was the capital of Korea's Goryeo Dynasty during the years 918-1392 AD. Gaeseong is also the site of a large inter-Korean industrial complex, where about 20,000 North Koreans are working at South Korea-owned factories.

 

Hyundai Asan has also attracted 1.75 million South Koreans to its tourism program to visit the scenic Mount Kumgang since its launch of November 1998. "If the Kumgang program is said to be all about seeing and hiking the mountain without touching the local tastes, the Gaeseong program is giving South Koreans a rare glance at the local people," Hyundai Asan's spokesman said. Exploring the ancient capital city in North Korea has proved alluring for South Koreans, but they have largely been unimpressed with the idea of climbing Mount Kumgang because the package offered to them denies them the opportunity to make local contacts. But even on the Gaeseong tour, South Korean tourists say the North Koreans they encounter are usually shy about making personal contacts with South Koreans.

"We were waving to them, only to be ignored, although children are usually smiling back at us," said Choi Yoo-Shik, a journalist who took the day tour to Gaeseong. "I even felt like the North Koreans were trying to fake indifference toward us. Still, I've occasionally found some North Korean people secretly peeking out of back alleys towards us when we pass by their villages."Each South Korean pays 180,000 won, or $190, for the daylong trip to Gaeseong, about half of which is paid to North Korea in cash.

 

Many South Koreans say it's well worth the price. "Time seems to stand still because I was feeling like the North Koreans look like what South Koreans used to look like in the 1960s and 1970s," said a 38-year-old South Korean teacher who visited Gaeseong. If 10,000 South Koreans per month visit Gaeseong, it earns North Korea a monthly income of about $1 million. This is about the same amount that North Korea is earning from 20,000 North Korea's mostly youthful women workers who are working at South Korea-owned factories in Gaeseong city. Each of these approximately 20,000 North Korean workers in the Gaeseong Industrial Estate is earning an average of $60.3 a month.

 

If South Koreans expect to get a spontaneous look at the ordinary lives of North Koreans in the city, the day tour may be a disappointment. Pyongyang officials go to great lengths to minimize social contacts between South Koreans and North Koreans. "When we arrived at a historic temple or waterfall, we could hardly bump into North Korean people there," said on South Korean father who brought his son on the tour to Gaeseong. South Korean tourists are forbidden from taking photos of local people or the ubiquitous billboards with North Korean slogans."Although it was pretty fun to go around in the city, in the absence of free access to local North Koreans, I almost felt like I was on a Universal Studio style tour of Gaeseong city," said another South Korean visitor.

 

But despite the limited access to the people, the Gaeseong day tours are attracting a growing number of youthful South Koreans who come for sightseeing, eating and shopping.The tours are particularly popular with young people, teachers, families with children and elderly people who were born in the north. North Korean food is very popular, with the so-called "11 choice dishes" offering South Koreans nostalgic tastes for old-style down-home Korean food. "I've not dreamed of tasting such a true taste of my home town food," said Ms Lim, 70, who fled to South Korea from the north during the Korean War of 1950-53.

 

At historic sites, many older South Koreans are reviving memories going back to before the Korean War. "This looks exactly the same as when we took a school excursion when I was kid," said Mr Chung, 72, whose hometown was near Gaeseong.