SEOUL - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Friday it will press ahead with the planned disposal of South Korean-owned properties at their joint mountain resort, dismissing South Korea's renewed call for talks.

The DPRK, which unilaterally set July 29 as a deadline for resolving their impasse over their joint tour program, said it will now have to take steps to dispose of South Korean properties believed to be worth 325.5 million U.S. dollars.

The DPRK also asked South Korean businessmen to visit Mount Kumgang in three weeks to discuss the issue. Failure to visit the mountain would be regarded as a voluntary renunciation of property rights, it added, according to the unification ministry.

The measure comes shortly after South Korea renewed its call on its northern neighbor to come to the negotiating table over the resort area, which the DPRK now plans to develop into a special zone for international tours.

Seoul proposed earlier this week a working-level meeting between officials from the two Koreas to discuss the disposal issue, but Pyongyang said it is only willing to hold a meeting as long as South Korean businessmen are also brought to the talks.

Seoul, which has dismissed the deadline as an arbitrary measure, said it considers Pyongyang's response a practical rejection of its offer for talks.

"North Korea (DPRK) is taking unilateral measures to dispose of South Korean properties despite our repeated request the issue be resolved through dialogue," Seoul's unification ministry, which oversees inter-Korean relations, said in a statement. " North Korea (DPRK) will be held responsible for all potential problems caused by its unilateral measure."

The government will do its best to protect property rights of its people "through legal and diplomatic means," the ministry added, calling the threatened disposal "very regrettable."

Tours to Mount Kumgang, just north of the border, were suspended in 2008 after a shooting death of a South Korean tourist there. Seoul has long refused to reopen the tours without a proper investigation into the shooting death and safety guarantees.

Pyongyang, claiming it has done enough, unilaterally seized South Korean properties including hotels, restaurants and a golf course, and terminated its deal with Seoul-based Hyundai Asan, a tour operator.

The seizure is seen here as Pyongyang's response to Seoul's seeming reluctance to reopen the suspended tours, once a rare source of hard cash for Pyongyang.

Launched in 1998 amid growing rapprochement, the tours had brought nearly two million South Koreans to the scenic mountain.

"The 2008 shooting death lies at the core of the dispute," unification ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-ju said in a briefing earlier in the day.

"Without progress in discussions over safety guarantees for tourists, the government cannot even consider reopening the tours," she added. "We still want to resolve the issue through dialogue with the North (DPRK)."