SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Sunday it will expel South Koreans from a mountain resort in the communist country, a further sign of fraying ties between the divided Koreas.
The move comes after a South Korean tourist was fatally shot by a North Korean soldier at the resort last month, prompting strong protests from Seoul.
The North Korean military unit at the resort said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency that it would expel all South Koreans “we deem unnecessary” from Diamond Mountain.
South Korea suspended tours to the resort — one of the symbolic reconciliation programs between the two sides — after the shooting, but there are still 262 southerners working there.
North Korea also warned it would take military actions against “even the slightest hostile actions” in the area.
It said it would limit the passage of South Koreans and their vehicles through the heavily armed border crossing that leads there.
The warnings came two days after South Korea raised more doubts about North Korea’s account of how the southern tourist was shot in the resort on the North’s east coast.
North Korea has said the 53-year-old South Korean homemaker strayed into a restricted military area while strolling on a beach before dawn and refused to comply with a soldier’s order to halt, instead running away before being shot twice.
On Friday, South Korea said two days of tests at a beach to check the North’s explanation of what happened showed the victim was probably shot while standing still or walking slowly.
Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyeon expressed regret Sunday over the North Korean statement and renewed South Korea’s demand that the North cooperate in an investigation of the July 11 shooting of the woman.
