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North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un (36) wants to venture into luxury tourism. On Mount Kumgang (1638 meters) he is planning a vacation spot that will “make the whole world jealous.”
The luxury resort will come to a standstill at the point where North and South Korea built a holiday resort in the late 1990s. This village would become an excellent example of economic cooperation between the two Koreas and would attract hundreds of thousands of South Koreans.
An installation “in bad shape”
South Korean companies, especially Hyundai, invested more than $ 1 billion in the project. The holiday village was closed in 2008 after a North Korean soldier shot and killed a 53-year-old South Korean tourist who had strayed from the permitted route.
Kim dismissively describes the cozy facilities back then as “shabby” today. The buildings look like “makeshift tents in a disaster area.”
To carry out his extravagant project, he ordered a year ago that the relatively new facility be razed. Due to the corona pandemic, the demolition has yet to take place.
Kim has sent his head of government, Kim Tok Hun (59), to the region. This underscored the “need” to rebuild the resort “our way.” He announced the construction of a golf course. The former facility will be converted into a “modern and international all-inclusive resort”. No concrete plans have been released yet.
Kim puts pressure on South Korea
But is Kim Jong Un really about foreign visitors? Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, told the AP news agency that the timing of Pyongyang’s announcement about the plant had less to do with tourism and more to do with politics. “By jeopardizing Seoul’s hopes for a joint project,” the regime is pushing. Ultimately, Kim just wanted to find a way to monetize South Korea, the professor said.
Relations between North and South Korea have cooled to an icy level a year and a half ago after a hopeful mediation attempt by US President Donald Trump (74). In June, Kim Jong Un provocatively blew up the joint liaison office at the border. (gf)
