North Korea has been demanding that the South resume tours to the facility, which had been a key source of foreign currency earnings for the impoverished nation but were suspended after a North Korean soldier shot a South Korean tourist to death in 2008.[break]
South Korea has refused to restart tours until its demands for a joint investigation into the death are carried out and measures to guarantee the safety of tourists are outlined.
Tensions between the two Koreas are already high after a South Korean navy ship sank last month amid suspicion that North Korea may have been responsible. North Korea has denied involvement.
"The confiscated real estate will be put into the possession of the (North) or handed over to new businessmen according to legal procedures," North Korea said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency on Friday.
The five seized properties were identifed as a fire station, a duty-free shop, a reunion center for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, a cultural center where North Korean troupes performed for tourists and a spa.
The North also said it will freeze ownership of all the remaining South Korean real estate at the resort and expel all their management personnel.
The two Koreas started the tour program more than a decade ago as part of reconciliation efforts on the divided peninsula.
Officials at South Korea´s Unification Ministry, which handle relations with North Korea, were not immediately available for comment.
Spokesman Roh Jee-hwan of Hyundai Asan, the main private South Korean tour operator at the resort, also had no immediate comment.
Unification Minister Hyun In-taek has recently warned that Seoul would deal with North Korea sternly if it takes more "unreasonable steps." He did not elaborate.
The North´s statement faulted South Korea for linking the sinking of the warship to the North, and called South Korean President Lee Myung-bak a traitor for comments connected with the North´s celebrations of its late founder´s birthday last week.
Lee had criticized North Korea for spending a reported 6 billion won ($5.4 million) on fireworks to mark Kim Il Sung´s birthday, saying the money would have been better spent on corn to ease the country´s chronic food shortages.
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