South Korea announced on Friday to suspend tour to Mount Geumgang in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) after a female South Korean was shot dead in the DPRK.

"We will shelve the program starting tomorrow until a probe into this incident is completed," Kim Ho-nyoun, spokesman for the South Korean Unification Ministry said.

Seoul will take appropriate measures depending on the outcome of the investigation, he added.

According to the spokesman, the 53-year-old woman, identified by her family name Park, was shot dead at 5 a.m.(2000 GMT Thursday) .

Local media said the woman crossed into a restricted military zone in the DPRK and was shot in the chest and leg.

The DPRK side informed the incident to South Korea's Hyundai Asan company, the operator of the inter-Korean tourist program, at about 9 a.m.(0000 GMT Friday) and claimed that its soldier opened fire after firing a warning shot since the woman ignored repeated order to stop to run away.

Local media said the woman's body was handed over and transferred to a hospital in the South Korea's eastern port city of Sokcho in the afternoon.

It was the first time that a South Korean tourist was shot dead in DPRK's resort since the inter-Korean tourist program was kicked off in 1998.

(Xinhua News Agency July 11, 2008)