North Korea has blown up an entire tourist resort that once symbolized peace and cooperation with South Korea. This is the Diamond Mountain Golf Resort, located on Mount Kumgan.
The tourist region, a special administrative region of North Korea, was established in 2002 to receive South Korean vacationers. This was a hallmark of South Korea’s “solar policy” on cooperation with its neighbor – a foreign policy framework that was to strengthen cooperation between the two countries through economic cooperation.
South Koreans have been visiting the region for several years, providing foreign currency to the North Korean economy. However, tourism stopped in 2008 after an incident when a tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier. A 53-year-old South Korean woman then entered the restricted area.
After the emergency at the initiative of the South Korean government tours to the resort were suspended. The ban lasted for 10 years. In 2019, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited the tourist region and criticized it, calling it “backward”, “messy” and “shabby”, according to the Australian ABC News. The media reported that he instructed the agencies to rebuild the facilities in accordance with the “aesthetic taste” of North Korea. There have been no details about the resort’s fate for the past few years.
And now the allegorical object of peace and hope was no longer needed. According to The Times, North Korea used explosives to demolish a golf resort built by South Korea for South Koreans and once symbolized reconciliation between the two countries. According to satellite images, tourist facilities were blown up last weekend. A month earlier, local media reported, the floating Haegumgang Hotel, owned by South Korean company Hyundai Group, was demolished on the same mountain.
South Korean officials tried to use the intergovernmental hotline to demand explanations for the destruction of tourist sites in the mountainous region, but they did not respond. “North Korea’s unilateral act of dismantling the hotel is clearly at odds with a joint effort between Koreans based on mutual respect and consultation,” said Cha Deok Chol, a spokesman for South Korean Unification Ministry.
For those who care about a healthy lifestyle, we recommend reading: “Doctors have named the foods you need to eat at night to sleep well.”