The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said on Sunday that it will expel all "unnecessary" South Koreans in the Mt. Kumgang resort, where a South Korean woman tourist was shot dead in July.

"We will expel all the persons of the south side staying in the Mt. Kumgang tourist area we deem unnecessary," a spokesman for the Korean People's Army (KPA) said in a statement released by the official KCNA news agency.

The KPA will also limit and control the entry of persons and vehicles from South Korea to the resort area, he added.

The unnamed spokesman said Park Wang Ja, the woman tourist who was shot dead by a KPA soldier last month, should be blamed for her own death.

He further accused the South Korean government of "driving the frozen inter-Korean relations to a catastrophic phase" by "deliberately confronting with the DPRK."

The DPRK will "take strong military counter-actions against even the slightest hostile actions" by the South side, he said.

South Korean investigators Friday refuted the DPRK's claim that the 53-year-old Park Wang Ja ignored an order to stop and tried to run away, saying a KPA soldier might have fired from a distance of about 100 meters.

(Xinhua News Agency August 4, 2008)