South Korea rebutted North Korea's claim Monday that it had already promised to guarantee the safety of South Korean visitors in a joint tour program years earlier, saying that the issue remain unresolved.

Since 2008, the South has halted an inter-Korean tour program at Mount Kumgang on the North's east coast following the shooting death of a South Korean tourist by a North Korean soldier.

Seoul has called on Pyongyang to admit to its responsibility, guarantee the safety of South Korean visitors there, and ensure that similar incidents do not recur.

North Korea's key propaganda website, Uriminzokkiri, said Sunday that it had already promised a maximum level of protection for South Korean visitors in 2009 when Hyun Jeong-eun, chairwoman at Hyundai Group, visited Pyongyang.

Hyundai Asan, an arm of the group, had operated the tour program until 2008 since starting it in 1998.

The Unification Ministry countered the North's claim, stressing the issue has yet to be discussed between the two governments.

"There should be practical ways to guarantee the security of South Korean (visitors at the mountain)," said Park Soo-jin, the deputy spokeswoman for the ministry, at a regular press briefing.

"We regard the issue as a matter to be dealt with at the government level."

Whether to resume the Mount Kumgang tour was a key deal breaker for rare high-level inter-Korean talks which were held at the North's border city of Kaesong on Dec. 11-12.

North Korea claimed that the resumption of the tour program is a precondition for discussing the South's push for regular reunions of families torn apart by the 1950-53 Korean War. Seoul said that the two should be discussed separately.

The issue of resuming the tour program is also linked to whether it would violate U.N. sanctions banning the transfer of bulk cash to Pyongyang. (Yonhap)