Hyundai chairwoman denied access to North Korea for husband’s memorial service

North Korea has denied a request to enter their country from the head of the Hyundai Group.

Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun requested permission to visit the hermit kingdom’s Mount Kumgang in August on the anniversary of her husband’s death.

“We make it clear that we have neither been informed about any South Korean personage’s willingness for visit nor known about it and that we have no intention to examine it,” said Director General of North Korean Foreign Ministry Kim Song-il in a statement. 

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“Such principle and policy are unchangeable and will be maintained in the future, too,” Kim added.

Hyun’s husband, Chung Mong-hun, was the head of the Hyundai group before his death by suicide in 2003. 

The company was founded by his father, Chung Ju-yung, who was born in a region of pre-civil war Korea that now sits within North Korea’s borders.

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The Hyundai Group has been responsible for extensive cross-border collaboration between the South and North.

Mount Kumgang was once a key aspect of South-North relations, serving as the location of a resort open to limited tourism from outsiders. It was run in collaboration with the Hyundai Group but was shut down in July 2008 after a North Korean soldier shot and killed a South Korean woman visiting the resort after she wandered into a restricted area.

The North Korean government began dismantling Mount Kumgang’s infrastructure last year under orders from dictator Kim Jong-un.