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North Korean citizens enjoy the Masikryong Ski Resort in Gangwon Province. (Yonhap News)

The celebration at Mt. Kumgang and the ski training at the Masikryong Ski Resort that South and North Korea agreed to hold during their vice-minister level talks on Jan. 17 about the North’s delegation to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics are likely to be remembered as unprecedented events symbolizing the “Peace Olympics.” It is also symbolic that both Mt. Kumgang and the Masikryong Ski Resort are located in the North Korean half of Gangwon Province, which is divided between the two Koreas.

The Mt. Kumgang celebration will be organized by South and North Korea and held on the stage at Mt. Kumgang prior to the Olympics. It will essentially be an inter-Korean event on the eve of the Olympics. North Korean authorities are also supposed to open up the Masikryong Ski Resort so that athletes from the two sides can train together there prior to the main opening ceremony at Pyeongchang. South Korea has agreed to send an advance party to inspect the resort facilities from Jan. 23 and 25, and South Korean skiers are expected to visit North Korea shortly afterward.

The celebration at Mt. Kumgang on the eve of the Olympics and the training at the Masikryong Ski Resort were part of the five-point plan for the “Peace Olympics” at Pyeongchang that then-presidential candidate Moon announced during a meeting with Gangwon Province Governor Choi Moon-soon while Moon was campaigning in the province in Apr. 2017.

The main components of the plan outlined by Moon and Choi were deliberating with the IOC about North Korean athletes participating in the Olympics, North Korean athletes raveling overland at Mt. Kumgang, discussing ways to use North Korea’s winter sports infrastructure, allowing a North Korean cheer group to disembark at Sokcho Harbor and holding a celebration at the Onjonggak complex at Mt. Kumgang on the eve of the Olympics.

“If we can make Pyeongchang into the Peace Olympics, it could create an opportunity for improving inter-Korea relations,” Moon said at the time.

As far back as Jan. 2017, Moon said during a visit to Gangwon Province that “using North Korea’s Mt. Kumgang Hotel and the Masikryong Ski Resort as lodgings or training facilities and simultaneously holding a celebration at Mt. Kumgang on the eve of the Olympics would probably attract global interest.” This means that a celebration at Mt. Kumgang on the eve of the Olympics is a plan that Moon has cherished for quite some time.

Masikryong Ski Resort, which South Korean athletes will visit to train with their North Korean counterparts prior to the opening ceremony, opened on Dec. 31, 2013. At the time of its launch, North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency reported as follows: “The Masikryong Ski Resort is world-class in terms of the number and total length of its ski slopes and is immersed in nature while providing the highest quality in terms of its rustic hotels, its ski support facilities and lodgings and its ski lift. This is an excellent facility that possesses all the conditions necessary for sports, tourism and relaxation.”

North Korea promotes the Masikryong Ski Resort as one of Kim Jong-un’s signature achievements. Kim has pursued a plan of developing Wonsan into a tourist zone by renovating Galma Airport, which is in the vicinity, while bringing in tourists to beaches like Songdowon and Myongsashimri in the summer and to the Masikryong Ski Resort in the winter.

Reports say that Kim, who spent his teenage years in Switzerland, is especially fond of skiing and other winter sports. During the construction of the resort, he visited the site on several occasions to encourage the crew. The North Korean government even coined the phrase “Masikryong speed” to accelerate the construction. While little is known about the Masikryong Ski Resort at present, the Pyeongchang Olympics will serve as its debut on the world stage.

By Kim Ji-eun and Jung In-hwan, staff reporters

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