A group of South Korean firms that invested in an inter-Korean tour program urged the government Tuesday to resume the long-suspended project as soon as possible, as they are grappling with heavy losses.

The South has suspended the joint tour program at Mount Geumgangsan on the North’s east coast since July 2008 when a South Korean tourist was shot to death by a North Korean solider at the resort.

Hyundai Asan, the main operator of the tour project, reportedly invested $196 million in building facilities at the resort, which opened in 1998.

The group of 49 small contractors to Hyundai Asan said they have been reeling from a revenue deficit of more than 800 billion won ($710 million) due to the tour suspension. They invested a combined 190 billion won in the joint tour program.

“We urge the two Koreas to stop political confrontation and hold honest talks,” the Mount Geumgang Enterpriser Association said in a statement.

“The government should resume the joint tour program and lift its sanctions against North Korea,” it added. The sanctions were imposed after the North’s torpedoing of a South Korean warship and its shelling of a border island in 2010. (Yonhap)