Critical Issues in the Mt. Geumgang Tourism Project, Korea.

South and North Korea have been politically divided since the Korean War between the Capitalists and the Communists in 1950. After fifty years of separation, travel from South to North Korea was completely prohibited, but later selected some South Korean businessmen and few residents were secretly permitted to visited North Korea through third countries, mainly China. Tourism, because of its peculiar nature, depends much on security and safety at the destination. Likewise, Korea needs to assure concrete security and safety to develop tourism in particular. In new millennium, however, Korea has a major issue to be solved. That is to decrease the political tension between South and North so as to accelerate the reunification of the peninsula. In this context, the Mt. Geumgang tourism project should be placed in the first priority since this will ease the strained political relations between South and North. This paper attempts to review the actual condition of the Mt. Geumgang tourism project and to examine economic, socio-cultural and political impacts.