This file image, taken from North Korea’s Korean Central Television on Oct. 24, 2023, shows Mount Kumgang. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 10 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea dismantled a fire station built with the South Korean government’s budget at the Mount Kumgang resort on the North’s east coast last month, the unification ministry said Friday.
The ministry in charge of inter-Korean affairs voiced “strong” regret over North Korea’s “unilateral” removal of the South Korean government asset and warned of possible legal actions.
“The government expresses strong regret that North Korea unilaterally dismantled the fire station installed by our government at the Mount Kumgang district,” Koo Byoung-sam, spokesperson at the ministry, told a regular press briefing.
He urged Pyongyang to immediately cease such action and warned of taking possible legal measures.
“North Korea’s unilateral dismantling cannot be justified … and the North Korean regime should take all responsibility for this case, including the property infringement of our government,” Koo said.
The dismantled fire station is the first South Korean government-owned facility that the North has taken down at the scenic mountain resort, once considered a symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation and a source of much-needed hard currency for the North.
The two-story fire station was built in 2008 to protect South Korean tourists’ safety with 2.2 billion won (US$1.6 million) in state budget.
South Korea suspended tour programs at the resort in 2008 after a South Korean female tourist was shot dead by a North Korean guard near the resort. Pyongyang claimed the tourist had ventured into an off-limits military area.
In 2022, the North dismantled major facilities owned by Hyundai Asan, the South Korean operator of the tour program, at the resort, including the floating Haegumgang Hotel, the Ananti Golf Resort and Onjong Pavilion.
The move came as the North’s leader Kim Jong-un ordered officials in 2019 to tear down all “unpleasant-looking” facilities built by the South.
Inter-Korean ties have plummeted to the lowest ebb after Kim called for scrapping a decadeslong policy of seeking unification with South Korea and defining their relations as those between “two states hostile to each other” in a year-end party meeting.
(Yonhap)
