South Korea's Unification Ministry says tours to North Korea’s Mount Geumgang can resume only when the safety of tourists is guaranteed and when improved inter-Korean ties have led to progress on the North Korean nuclear issue.  

Unification Ministry Spokesman Lee Duk-haeng made the comments during a regular briefing on Wednesday. 

The tour program was launched in 1998 but suspended ten years later when a North Korean soldier fatally shot a visiting South Korean woman in the back.
 
Lee also urged the North to actively respond to President Moon Jae-in’s recent proposals for improving cross-border relations and denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.