North Korea Reportedly Ready to Demolish South Korean Built Tourist Facilities
With the election of conservative Yoon Suk-yeol in South Korea, it seems that North sees no reason to keep these symbols of prior inter-Korean reconciliation which were in reality just money grabs for the Kim regime:
North Korea appears to have begun to dismantle some of the South Korean-built facilities at the Mount Kumgang resort, a report has said.
Citing satellite images taken from March 5-9 by Planet Labs, the Voice of America said Friday (U.S. time) that the roof of the Haegumgang Hotel had become darker in the photos.
The images also showed that heavy machinery was located in front of the floating hotel.
The previous day, the South Korean government said it had detected similar moves at the resort complex but did not elaborate on which facilities were subject to the suspected dismantling.
The resort area, located on the southeastern coast of North Korea, houses a reunion center and other buildings for tourists from South Korea.
Pyongyang had announced that it would remove the facilities at Mount Kumgang, a rare symbol of inter-Korean collaboration, since its leader Kim Jong-un called for tearing down all “unpleasant-looking” facilities in 2019.
Yonhap
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It makes sense that KJU would not want to potentially wait another 5 years for a ROK government that might fix the facility up for his use ($). The facility was upgraded for a family reunion in 2019 at ROKG expense and with 1718 committee approval but that upgrade will not last long with zero maintenance and the DPRK does not have access to South Korean repair techniques or parts. (Samsung AC, etc.)