PRESS DIGEST - South Korean newspapers - March 5

SEOUL, March 5 (Reuters) - The following is a summary of major South Korean newspapers on Friday prepared by Reuters in Seoul. Reuters has not checked the stories and does not guarantee their accuracy.

DONGA ILBO

The president of Good Neighbors, an South Korean aid group for North Korea, said on Thursday after a recent trip to North Korea that the destitute state was not disclosing details on the fate of four recently detained South Koreans to maintain leverage over the South.

North Korea's Asia-Pacific Peace Committee Thursday said in a statement Thursday that the state would annul deals with South Korea on tourism to the North's Mt. Kumgang and Kaesong if the South were to continue suspending the tours. The trips came to a halt in July 2008 when a South Korean visiting Mt. Kumgang was shot dead by a North Korean soldier.

The number of suicides committed by citizens aged 61 years or more jumped to 4,029 in 2008 from 788 in 1989, according to a research report from the Police Science Institute on Thursday.

CHOSUN ILBO

A source close to GM's [GM.UL] South Korean unit, GM Daewoo Automotive and Technology Co, said on Thursday that the GM Daewoo brand name would be changed to Chevrolet next month.

KOREA ECONOMIC DAILY

An index released by Statistics Korea on Thursday predicted the country's population would start to decline from 2019. There were 48.75 million people in South Korea as of July 2009, a 0.29 percent increase from the year before.