North Korea has announced that is going to demolish a South Korean-owned hotel which is a symbol of inter-Korean engagement.
It comes after North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un called the South Korean facilities in the Kumgang city “shabby.”
Seoul officials have called for the North to stop the “unilateral” destruction. Unification Ministry spokesperson Cha Deok-cheol said Seoul “strongly regrets North Korea’s unilateral dismantlement” of the hotel.
Cha said Seoul used inter-Korean communication channels to demand an explanation and talks on the issue, but the North has ignored the request.
During a high period of engagement between the rivals in the 1990s, South Korea built dozens of facilities at North Korea’s Diamond Mountain resort to accommodate tourism by its citizens.
South Korean tours to Diamond Mountain were a major symbol of cooperation between the Koreas. It was also a valuable cash source for the North’s broken economy before the South suspended them in 2008 after a North Korean guard fatally shot a South Korean tourist.
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After months of frustration over Seoul’s unwillingness to defy US-led sanctions that kept the tours from resuming, Kim Jong-Un ordered the destuction of the resort.
The US State Department’s top North Korea envoy, Sung Kim has said, “We are worried that in connection with the upcoming April 15 anniversary, the DPRK may be tempted to take another provocative action.”
“I don’t want to speculate too much, but I think it could be another missile launch, it could be a nuclear test,” he said.
“We have not received any response from Pyongyang, which is very disappointing, because we have sent several messages, both public and private, inviting them to a dialogue without any conditions.”
“Instead they have initiated a series of missile tests that recently culminated in at least three ICBM launches. These actions pose a serious threat to regional stability,” he added.
(With inputs from agencies)
