A former executive at the centre of a spat between North Korea and a South Korean firm said on Saturday Pyongyang would eventually come around and resume work with the company that does most commerce there.
Kim Yoon-kyu, former chief executive and vice chairman of Hyundai Asan - part of the Hyundai Group conglomerate - who has been stripped of all roles by the firm under graft charges, also denied allegations he took company money for personal use.
"North Korea in all likelihood wants to be back on good business terms," Kim told reporters on arrival at the Inchon International Airport from China, where he had been in seclusion since the charges of financial improprieties surfaced last month.
Kim was a trusted confidant of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and also of deceased Hyundai leaders who pioneered business in the North.
North Korea said in an angry statement on Thursday it had been forced to reconsider all business projects with Hyundai because of Kim's sacking, which it said showed disrespect and "insane" lack of trust, especially because it involved a figure who had had the "great honour" of meeting Kim Jong-il.
"Hyundai is in the right position to do it," the ousted executive said, referring to business in the North.
"Work like this shouldn't stop because of something like this, and it's absolutely wrong to lose a business partner over something like this," he said.
Hyundai has sunk $1 billion in various projects in the North and was seeking to build on it.
A Hyundai senior vice president who worked closely with Kim told Reuters on Friday it still hoped to return to good business terms with the North and time would do much to heal bad feelings.
Kim expressed bitterness towards accusations that ended his 37 years of career with Hyundai and 17 years on North Korea projects. Money he spent "was spent for the company as a manager", he said.
"I put my life at stake when I began this business with Chairman Chung Ju-young," Kim said, referring to the late founder of the Hyundai conglomerate.
He rejected concerns that North Korea's displeasure could damage the South's hard-won commercial ties with the North and also deal a blow to the overall policy of engagement that is credited with easing tension between the two Koreas.
"After 50 years of divisions, railroads and highways are being open, and there are 4,000, 5,000 people in Kaesong industrial complex, maybe 100,000 in two, three years, North Koreans working on jobs there," he said.
"Work like this, will that all go wrong just because of one Kim Yoon-kyu? That's inconceivable. I don't believe that."