The communist state also said it would restart a reunion programme for separated families, raising hopes of an easing of tensions three days after it freed a South Korean detainee.

It separately announced it has ordered its army and people on special alert as US and South Korean troops begin their exercise, and vowed to respond to any military provocation with a nuclear attack.

The tourism agreement was disclosed a day after a meeting in Pyongyang between North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and Hyun Jung-Eun, chairwoman of the South's Hyundai Group which operates joint business ventures.

Hyun travelled to the North last week to secure the release of an employee detained since March for allegedly criticising Pyongyang's regime.

Cross-border ties have soured since South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak's conservative government came to power in February 2008 and took a tougher line on relations.

International tensions have also risen this year following the North's latest nuclear and missile tests and a US-led drive for tougher enforcement of United Nations sanctions.

However, former US president Bill Clinton went to Pyongyang this month to meet Kim and win a pardon for two American journalists. Washington said officials had indicated to Clinton that they want better relations.

The tour suspensions have cost the impoverished North millions of dollars in lost revenue at a time when it is hit by the intensified sanctions.

The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said tours to the Mount Kumgang resort on the east coast and to Kaesong, a historic city near the west coast, would resume as soon as possible.

Quoting what it called a joint agreement with Hyundai, it said the North would allow South Korean tourists more access to Mount Kumgang and new access to Mount Paekdu near its border with China.

The North said it would lift controls on border crossings by businessmen visiting a Seoul-funded industrial estate at Kaesong and by tourists.

It said it would resume reunions of Korean families separated since the 1950-1953 war, and these would be held around Korean Thanksgiving Day on October 3.

The Seoul government suspended tours to Kumgang after soldiers in July 2008 shot dead a South Korean housewife who strayed into a military zone. It would have to approve their restarting.

Pyongyang halted day trips to Kaesong and limited access to the industrial estate there as ties worsened.

"The Kim-Hyun meeting shows that the North treats the individual Hyundai Group cordially, but not South Korea in general. It does not necessarily herald a quick thaw in frosty inter-Korean relations," Koh Yu-Hwan, a North Korean expert at Seoul's Dongkuk University, told AFP Sunday.

The military supreme command described the exercise south of the border as a "grave threat" to peace and a prelude to an invasion.

It vowed to respond to "even the slightest military provocation" infringing on its sovereignty with a "merciless and prompt annihilating strike at the aggressors with all offensive and defensive means including nuclear deterrent involved."

The North frequently denounces such exercises and vows to retaliate for any breach of its sovereignty.

The US and South Korean military command has notified the North of the "Ulchi Freedom Guardian" exercise from August 17-27, calling it defensive and "not meant to be provocative in any way."

Some 10,000 US troops from bases in South Korea and overseas, plus about 56,000 Korean troops, will take part.

The North's military said the annual exercise is based on a new scenario for invasion.

"The army and people of the DPRK (North Korea) will never remain a passive onlooker to the prevailing touch-and-go situation where dark clouds of a nuclear war are gathering to hang heavily over the inviolable territory of their country," it said.

The North told its people to adopt a "tense and militarised posture" as they pursue a "150-day campaign" -- a drive now under way to raise productivity in key sectors of the economy.

The US stations 28,500 troops in the South.

Share This Article With Planet Earth

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Related Links
Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com
Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com
All about missiles at SpaceWar.com
Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News