North Korea vows to rebuild resort site despite pandemic

SEOUL, South Korea — A top North Korea official has visited a mountain resort that had been jointly run with rival South Korea during past rapprochement and discussed efforts to unilaterally rebuild it into “a cultural resort envied by the whole world,” state media reported Sunday.

Some experts say North Korea may be putting pressure on South Korea in order to benefit from an economic engagement as the pandemic is aggravating North Korean economic woes.

During a trip to the Diamond Mountain resort, Premier Kim Tok Hun “stressed the need to build the tourist area our own way in which national character and modernity are combined while in good harmony with the natural scenery,” the Korean Central News Agency reported.

Kim said North Korea aims to turn the mountain area into “the one wellknown for serving the people and a cultural resort envied by the whole world.” He and other officials discussed the design and construction of “a world-level hotel, golf course, skiing ground,” according to KCNA.

North Korea had operated a joint tour program at the mountain with South Korea for about 10 years before it was suspended following the shooting death of a South Korean tourist there in 2008. About 2 million South Korean tourists had visited the resort, a rare source of foreign currency for the impoverished North.

When relations improved in recent years, the two Koreas pushed to restart stalled joint economic projects including the Diamond Mountain tours. But Seoul was eventually unable to do so without defying punishing U.N. sanctions imposed over the North’s nuclear program.

Late last year, an angry North

Korea pushed for the destruction of South Korean-made hotels and other facilities at the resort and demanded South Korea send workers to the site to clear out the buildings. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called the South Korean facilities “shabby” and “unpleasant-looking.”

But in January, North Korea postponed the demolition plans out of concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.

North Korea has said it hasn’t found a single virus case, a claim disputed by many outside experts.