North Korea blames South Korea for tourist death

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The North also rejected a South Korean request for investigators to visit the scene of Friday's shooting, claiming it has already clarified what happened with the South Korean tour company that runs the trips to the mountain on the peninsula's eastern coast.

Pyongyang's stance was certain to exacerbate tensions between the Koreas, which have flared since South Korea's new conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office in February.

Earlier on Saturday, Lee denounced the killing of 53-year-old housewife Park Wang-ja and urged the North to cooperate in the investigation.

"What cannot and should not happen has happened," Lee told a security ministers' meeting, according to his office.

"I can't understand that they shot a civilian tourist" at a time of the day when it is possible to discern she is a civilian, Lee said. He also urged Pyongyang to "actively cooperate" in an investigation.

But in the statement from a North Korean tourism bureau, Pyongyang said the tourist "intruded deep into the area under the military control of the North side all alone at dawn," noting that even her "shoes got wet."

The North said its soldier spotted the tourist and ordered her to stop, but that she ran away. The soldier "repeatedly shouted" at her to stop and fired warning shots, but then "could not but open fire" at the woman, according to the statement from the Guidance Bureau for Comprehensive Development of Scenic Spots.

"The responsibility for the incident entirely rests with the South side," the bureau said in the statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The statement called for Seoul to apologize and take measures to prevent it from happening again.

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