Local businesses that had invested in the now-shuttered inter-Korean tourism project at North Korea's Mount Geumgang resort urged the government and parliament to enact a special law to help settle their accounts.

Two groups representing the businesses made the plea at a press conference in front of the unification ministry on Tuesday, saying they cannot wait any longer for tours to resume after they were suspended due to the shooting death of a South Korean tourist by a North Korean soldier in 2008. 

Tuesday marks the 14th anniversary of the project's suspension, which was announced by the Lee Myung-bak administration a day after the killing of 53-year-old South Korean Park Wang-ja. 

Referring to Pyongyang’s seizure of all the South Korean businesses' investment assets in the North and a breach of contract in 2016, the groups urged the government to return their investments and write off their loans and accrued interest.

They called on the unification ministry to lift the sanctions imposed in response to the North's torpedo attack on the Cheonan warship in 2010, and to restore cross-border trust and economic cooperation by resuming individual tourism projects and through humanitarian exchanges.

This is the first time that the businesses have officially called for an account settlement.