North Korea is demolishing a South Korean-owned hotel at a North Korean resort that was one of the last symbols of inter-Korean engagement, said official in Seoul, who called for the North to stop the “unilateral” destruction.
South Korea built dozens of facilities at North Korea’s Diamond Mountain resort to accommodate tourism by its citizens during a high period of engagement between the rivals in the 1990s.
However, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in 2019 called the South Korean facilities there “shabby” and ordered them destroyed after months of frustration over Seoul’s unwillingness to defy US-led sanctions that kept the tours from resuming.
The North postponed the demolition work in 2020 as part of measures to prevent COVID-19.
The South Korean Ministry of Unification, which handles inter-Korean affairs, yesterday said that North Korea was proceeding with the demolition of the Haegumgang Hotel.
The floating hotel, docked at a coastal area of the resort, was a major property among dozens of facilities that South Korea established to accommodate Diamond Mountain tours, which began in 1998.
Ministry spokesperson Cha Deok-cheol said it was not clear whether the North also was destroying other facilities at the site.
Seoul “strongly regrets North Korea’s unilateral dismantlement” of the hotel, Cha said, adding that the ministry urges the North to engage in talks to resolve disagreements over the South Korean properties at the site.
Commercial satellite images indicate that the demolition work has been under way for weeks.
Seoul used inter-Korean communication channels to demand an explanation and talks on the issue, but the North has ignored the request, Cha said.
South Korean tours to Diamond Mountain were a major symbol of cooperation between the Koreas and a valuable cash source for the North’s broken economy before the South suspended them in 2008 after a North Korean guard fatally shot a South Korean tourist.
South Korea cannot restart mass tours to Diamond Mountain or any other major inter-Korean economic activity without defying sanctions, which have been strengthened since 2016, when the North began accelerating nuclear and missile tests.
While UN sanctions do not directly ban tourism, they prohibit bulk cash transfers that can result from such business activities.
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