A new North Korea observatory to be built on Mount Hwagae by 2021. (image: Ganghwa County Office)
SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — Incheon’s Ganghwa County, comprising many border islands, west of Seoul, said Thursday it will build its second observatory to overlook North Korea to boost its peace tourism.
The new observatory will be built in the form of a skywalk on top of the 242-meter-high Mount Hwagae in the county’s Gyodong area by 2021, the county government said, noting construction will cost 8.5 billion won (US$7.3 million).
Pushed as part of a project to turn Mount Hwagae into a tourist attraction, the observatory will be 32 meters high and occupy 600 square meters on two floors.
The exterior of the observatory will be designed to represent the long beak and eyes of a black-faced spoonbill, the county’s symbolic bird, county officials said, explaining visitors will feel like they are flying in the sky.
The observatory will overlook the Yeonbaek Plain in North Korea’s Hwanghae province, as well as Ganghwa and other Yellow Sea islands that belong to Incheon.
The Mount Hwagae observatory will be the county’s second facility to view North Korean soil after Ganghwa Peace Observatory opened in 2008 in the county’s Yangsa-myeon area.
“Ganghwat Peace Observatory is centered on the theme of national security,” a county official said. “The Mount Hwagae observatory will be focused on leisure and tourism, and is expected to further vitalize the regional economy.”
(Yonhap)
