Twenty years ago today, it became possible for South Korean civilians to visit the North's Mount Geumgang.
Some 100 South Koreans, including the chairperson of Hyundai Group, headed North today to celebrate with officials there.
There have been no tours for ten years, but the program has become a symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.
Hong Yoo reports.
The Mount Geumgangsan tours started way back in 1998 with a gesture by the founder of Hyundai, Chung Ju-yung .
He offered the North hundreds of cattle in an act of good will, and when he delivered them, he proposed starting a tour program as a way of initiating trade.

Thanks to his efforts, 900 South Korean tourists got to take a cruise ship to North Korea's east coast and then go on to Mount Geumgangsan that November.
Those tours continued for five years by ship, and then, in 2003, they started going over land.

The Mount Geumgangsan tour was what preserved trust between the two Koreas when armed battles occured on the western sea border between their navies.
But when a South Korean tourist was shot dead in 2008, the tours stopped.

Since then, Hyundai Group has tried to resume them, but sanctions on North Korea stood in their way.

Still, on Sunday, 10 years since the tours stopped, the two Koreas celebrated the 20th anniversary together.

The celebration was suggested by Hyundai, and North Korea agreed to it.
The chair of Hyundai Group, Hyun Jeong-eun is attending together with South Korean lawmakers and former ministers of unification,... while the North is sending around 80 officials from its Asia-Pacific Committee.

South Korea's Ministry of Unification says the two sides won't be talking about resuming the tours this time.
But many people think that would be a big step forward in terms of economic cooperation.
Hong Yoo, Arirang News.