(LEAD) Seoul voices regret over N.K.'s removal of S. Korean-built facilities at Mt. Kumgang resort

All News 13:17 October 18, 2022

(ATTN: UPDATES with more details in paras 6, 8-10)

SEOUL, Oct. 18 (Yonhap) -- The Seoul unification ministry on Tuesday expressed regret over North Korea's continued dismantling of South Korean-built facilities at the Mount Kumgang resort on its east coast.

Voice of America reported that the North appears to have torn down a South Korean-built raw fish restaurant at the resort, citing satellite images taken by Planet Labs, a U.S. Earth imaging company.

In response to the report, a senior unification ministry official voiced regrets that the North has continued to illegally infringe on South Koreans' property rights.

This photo, provided by Seoul's unification ministry in October 2019, shows a South Korean-built sushi restaurant at the Mount Kumgang resort on North Korea's east coast. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

"North Korea's demolition work is a clear violation of inter-Korean agreements," the official told reporters.

"We urge North Korea to immediately stop its unilateral behavior and make clear that all responsibilities related to the issue lie with the North," he added.

Since March, North Korea has been dismantling major facilities at the resort, including the floating Haegumgang Hotel, the Ananti Golf Resort and Onjong Pavilion, in accordance with its leader Kim Jong-un's 2019 order to tear down all "unpleasant-looking" facilities built by the South.

Launched in 1998, the Mount Kumgang project was once regarded as a symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation. But Seoul suspended the program in July 2008 after a South Korean woman was killed by a North Korean soldier at the resort.

Meanwhile, groups of South Korean businesspeople who had invested in the tour project and the now-shuttered Kaesong Industrial Complex called on the government to "fully" compensate them for their losses from strained cross-border ties.

"The government should provide compensation and take due responsibility if its decisions (to suspend the inter-Korean projects) have incurred financial damage on innocent people," they said in a statement.

South Korea shut down the industrial park in the North Korean border city of Kaesong in February 2016 in response to North Korea's nuclear and long-range missile tests.