North Korea is demolishing Mount Kumgang resort areas

• A South Korean Unification Ministry official says they saw “dismantling activity” at various locations on Mount Kumgang.
• In April, North Korea started destroying the iconic Hotel Haegumgang.
• Hyundai Asan’s Kumgang office was also mentioned as potentially being damaged this week.

Mount Kumgang, which translates to “Diamond” in Korean, has been the location of rare moments of reconciliation between inhabitants of the two nations, who are still formally at war.

A floating hotel in a vacation region, once praised as a symbol of peace between the Koreas, is being demolished by the North Korean authorities.

According to a South Korean Unification Ministry official, they saw “dismantling activity” at various locations on Mount Kumgang.

Unconfirmed sources stated that buildings in the complex had been dismantled months ago.
The much-publicized reunions of divided families from the South and North have previously taken place at Onjonggak Rest House, situated at the foot of Mount Kumgang.

Hyundai Asan’s Kumgang office was also mentioned as potentially being damaged this week. The tourism area was managed by the South Korean-owned corporation.

“Mount Kumgang tours improved inter-Korean reconciliation and served as a pivotal point for inter-Korean exchange,” Park Sung-uk, a spokeswoman for Hyundai Asan, previously told CNN.

In addition, in April, North Korea started destroying the iconic Hotel Haegumgang. The hotel, which used to float above Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, was relocated to Kumgang and opened to guests in 2000.

The official also said that they are actively watching whether North Korea would destroy the family reunification centre and the Kumgang community centre, but they cannot confirm this information at this time.

The two Koreas co-managed the Kumgang resort, which lies approximately 30 minutes north of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

It stopped inviting visitors in 2008 when a North Korean soldier shot and murdered a South Korean lady who had ventured over the Mount Kumgang tourist area’s limits and into a military zone.

Separated families, however, continued to rejoin there until 2018.

The neighbourhood has now fallen into decay. When North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited Kumgang in 2019, he described it as “shabby” and “backward.”

North Korea is apparently intending to replace all of the buildings on Mount Kumgang with new ones, presumably indicating that their government intends to administer and control the resort area independently of its southern neighbour.

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