The South Korean government rejected the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) demand to inspect a family reunion center in the Mount Kumgang resort area, saying the building should not be considered part of the mountain resort, local media reported Thursday. 'We maintain our position that the family reunion center has nothing to do with the Mount Kumgang resort area, and therefore, we have no plans to comply with the demand,' Lee Jong-joo, deputy spokeswomen of South Korea's Ministry of Unification, was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency. The announcement comes after a group of South Korean businessmen held a brief meeting with DPRK officials on Thursday for investigations into their assets inside the resort area of Mount Kumgang, which reportedly amount to 360 billion won (31 million U.S. dollars) in total. The DPRK threatened last week to confiscate South Korea's real estate inside the Mount Kumgang resort area and to find another business partner, accusing South Korea of deliberately putting off reopening of the lucrative business. Tours to Mount Kumgang, launched in 1998 and run by South Korea 's Hyundai Asan Corp., was halted in 2008 soon after a South Korean female tourist was shot to death by a DPRK soldier. Tours to the border town of Kaesong was also suspended in the same year, rapidly souring inter-Korean ties. The row over the tour programs deepened in early March after the DPRK threatened to revoke all inter-Korean deals related to tour programs, denouncing South Korea for blocking the resumption of the tours. 