North Korea postpones plans to tear down South Korean-made hotels and other facilities at the North’s Diamond Mountain resort to prevent the spread of a new virus that has reached the South after sickening thousands in China, KimTongHyung writes.
FILE - In this Oct. 23, 2018, file photo, local tourists walk on the trail at Mount Kumgang, known as Diamond Mountain, in North Korea. North Korea has postponed plans to tear down South Korean-made hotels and other facilities at the North’s Diamond Mountain resort to prevent the spread of a new virus that has reached the South after sickening thousands in China.
The North’s decision, which was conveyed to the South through a fax message late Thursday, came as it intensifies precautions against the outbreak, including blocking tourists, reducing flights and mobilizing screening efforts in a nationwide campaign state media described as a matter of “national existence.”
“At around 11 p.m. yesterday, North Korea through a direct telephone line between Seoul and Pyongyang ... informed its decision to temporarily suspend its plans to remove the facilities at the Diamond Mountain site,” said Yoh Sang-key, a spokesman from Seoul’s Unification Ministry. He said it wasn’t immediately clear when the Koreas would be able to resume discussions over the facilities.
That came weeks after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the destruction of the South Korean facilities he described as “shabby” and “unpleasant-looking” while vowing that the North would redevelop the site on its own. Kim’s comments came after months of frustration over the South’s unwillingness to defy U.S.-led international sanctions against the North and resume South Korean tours at the site.
Seoul can’t restart mass tours to Diamond Mountain or any other major inter-Korean economic activity without defying international sanctions against North Korea, which have been strengthened since 2016, when the North began accelerating its nuclear and missile tests.
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