Critical concerns

8220;This time I am here on Mount Kumgang. Next year I hope I can travel some other place in North Korea and the year after that another place,8221; said 97-year-old Shim Jae-Rhin. 8220;I am going to go to all the places and wait until the reunification of South and North Korea,8221; he said.

Hopes of arranging a permanent channel for family contacts orinformation were raised during the five-day tour when immigration officials agreed to investigate the fate of the mother of a 77-year-old passenger.

While he was devastated to learn his mother had died, the old man said he was relieved to know what had become of her since he last saw her in 1945.

8220;I feel better knowing than not knowing at all. It may take a while but I hope we can meet up with families in North Korea. I hope politics will not interfere with this humanitarian issue,8221; he added. But another traveller, Yoo Myong-Chul said he was worried that North Korea8217;s nuclear threat could end hopes of meeting with their loved ones.

8220;It seems like North Korea8217;s nuclear threat is a grave concern to South Korea and the US. I really hope that future tours will not be affected, hampering our hopes for reunion,8221; he said. 8220;I really hope that the Kumgang tour can become a stepping stone to reuniting separated families and improving relations between South and North Korea,8221; he said, sadly.

The UnitedStates is demanding that North Korea open up a suspect underground site to inspectors or risk scuppering a key 1994 nuclear deal. North Korea has refused to open the site, saying it is not being used for nuclear purposes.

The luxury cruiser Hyundai Kumgang took 937 people to the North in the first encounter between South and North Koreans since the 1950-53 Korean War.

People on both sides were at first rigid and unsure how to treat each other. But as the days passed the ice melted and soon they were holding hands and laughing and singing together.

8220;As time passes and these tours become regular, the barriers between the people will come down. That way, reuniting with families or finding out information should not be hard,8221; said one traveller.

North Korea had strongly objected to a proposal to make Mount Kumgang a meeting place for the millions of people separated by the last Cold War frontier.

But it also opposed letting South Koreans take food to the mountain to offer to their ancestors.8220;One of the strict rules laid down by the North Koreans included that no tourists should hold the ceremony or pay respects to their ancestors in North Korea,8221; said an official at Hyundai, organisers of the tour. 8220;And we were very surprised that they allowed it.8221;