It's All Golf's Fault Files: North and South Korea Conflict Edition

CNN's Paul Giddings looks at North Korea's now-shuttered (but maintained) Mount Kumkang golf resort and its role in escalating tensions between North and South Korea.

The story of the golf course serves to highlight the continued tension between the two Koreas, which was brought into sharp focus Tuesday when the North fired shells into the South's border island of Yeonpyeoung.
Two South Korean marines and two civilians were killed in the attack, which also wounded 15 marines and three civilians.

In March, a South Korean warship was sunk -- apparently by a North Korean torpedo, though this was vigorously denied -- with the loss of 46 sailors.

But it was the death of a South Korean tourist at Mount Kumgang in 2008 which first dealt a blow to hopes that the development of western-style facilities at the resort would boost the unification program.

On Friday July 11, 53-year-old Park Wang-ja, one of about 200,000 South Koreans who annually spent holidays in the area, was shot dead by a North Korean soldier.

The exact circumstances of her death remain disputed, but according to the Seoul-based Yonhap news agency, the soldier opened fire after she crossed into a military area near a beach.

The South Korean authorities wanted to send a team to investigate her death, but when this was refused, they suspended all trips indefinitely.

"We did not have any clear facts in this case," Lee Jong-joo, the official spokeswoman of the South Korean Unification Ministry, told CNN.

"The most important thing is that the North Korean authorities can guarantee the safety of our tourists," she added.