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Pyongyang aims to transform the iconic Mount Kumgang spa in an international tourist complex, announced on Sunday the official press, a year after the destruction of the buildings built by South Korea by order of the leader Kim Jong Un.
The spa, symbol of economic cooperation between the two Koreas, was built by Hyundai Asan, a subsidiary of the South Korean group Hyundai.
The goal was to attract thousands of South Korean tourists to Mount Kumgang, which means “Diamond Mountain,” considered one of the most beautiful places on the peninsula.
Last year, during a period of tensions between the two Koreas, Kim ordered the destruction of the “ramshackle” facilities the South had built, comparing them to “Makeshift tents set up in a destroyed region.”
The KCNA press agency reported that North Korean Prime Minister Kim Tok Hun visited the place and stressed the “need to rebuild the resort in our style” to turn it into a “resort envied by the whole world.”
The prime minister urged to transform the place into a “Modern and complete international tourist station”.
This resort was one of the most important inter-Korean projects along with the Kaesong Industrial Plant, closed since 2016, in which South Korean companies employed labor from the North.
Located near the border between the two Koreas, Mount Kumgang used to be a tourist destination for South Koreans until in 2008 a North Korean soldier killed a woman who had wandered away from security zones. As a result, Seoul banned visits.
North Korea wants this lucrative activity to resume, but now would violate international economic sanctions imposed on Pyongyang due to its nuclear program and missiles.
In June, Pyongyang destroyed the inter-Korean liaison office located on its territory and which had been financed by Seoul, one of the symbols of detente on the peninsula, claiming that it had no interest in negotiating.
“The Kim regime will have trouble finding resources to renovate Mount Kumgang and needs foreign investment, but it also sends the message that it attaches less importance to its South Korean partners,” says Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
According to Easley, it is also a way for Kim to pressure the administration of South Korean President Moon Jae-in to make the south resume financial aid.
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