SEOUL, S KOREA - NORTH Korea is still refusing to let South Korean officials investigate the fatal shooting of a Seoul tourist by one of its soldiers, a tour operator boss said yesterday after talks in the communist state.

The killing at the North's Mount Kumgang resort, after the woman strayed into a restricted military area, has caused shock and anger in the South and further soured relations between the two sides.

The North blames the South for the incident and refuses to let it send government officials for an on-site investigation.

'I strongly called for a joint probe to close this case, but the North has not shown any change to its previous position that a joint investigation is not needed,' Hyundai Asan president Yoon Man Joon told reporters on his return from a four-day trip.

Mr Yoon, whose firm developed and operates the Kumgang resort, met three tourism officials.

He said he heard that a North Korean closed- circuit TV camera on a beach where the woman, 53-year-old housewife Park Wang Ja, was shot had not been working at the time.

He added that in the account he received of the killing, 'there seemed to be some points different from the North's initial report made shortly after the incident'. He gave no details.

North Korea said the tourist, who was taking a dawn stroll on the beach near her hotel, had gone 'beyond the clearly marked boundary fence' and intruded deep into a military area.

It said she fled when challenged and did not stop even when a soldier discharged warning shots, forcing him to fire at her twice.

Witnesses have said that they did not hear warning shots, and others have queried the distance the woman was supposed to have walked. Photographs show no warnings on a section of the fence near the tideline.

The funeral of Madam Park was held yesterday in Seoul. Her 23-year-son Bang Jae Jeong wept during the Christian ceremony and kissed a photo of his mother, while clutching it tightly.

More than 30 civic groups, including those representing North Korean defectors, denounced Pyongyang's 'arrogant' handling of the incident.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Photo: Workers from Hyundia Asan look around the seaside, where a South Korean tourist was shot and killed at the Mount Kumgang resort in North Korea, July 11, 2008.