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An image of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspecting the Yangdok County Hot Spring Resort in South Pyongan Province released by Korean Central News on Oct. 25. (Yonhap News)

On the morning of Oct. 25, North Korea sent a message to South Korea requesting that South Koreans “come to the Mt. Kumgang tourist resort at an agreed-upon time to remove the facilities built by private companies and the authorities.” Just two days after North Korea declared in the Oct. 23 edition of the Rodong Sinmun newspaper that it means to tear down the old South Korean facilities from the Mt. Kumgang complex and build a “comprehensive international tourism and culture zone” in their place, it extended an official invitation to the South Korean government to deliberate the issue of removing those facilities. The South Korean government announced that it plans to use those deliberations to “develop a plan aimed at resuming and revitalizing tourism to Mt. Kumgang.”

“North Korea sent messages on the morning of Oct. 25 in the name of the Mt. Kumgang International Tourism Department to the Unification Ministry and to the Hyundai Group,” South Korea’s Unification Ministry said during a press conference that afternoon. In the messages, North Korea said it was “building a new international tourism and culture zone at the Mt. Kumgang resort” and expressed its hope that the South Koreans would “come to the Mt. Kumgang tourist resort at an agreed-upon time to dismantle the facilities built by private companies and the authorities.” The messages added that “technical questions can be decided through correspondence.” The government plans to make a response soon, following deliberations with related government agencies such as the Korea Tourism Organization and with stakeholders such as Hyundai-Asan, which owns the South Korean facilities at the Mt. Kumgang resort.

On Friday, the Unification Ministry outlined three key positions held by the South Korean government. First, the government’s “greatest priority is protecting the property rights of the Korean public.” Second, “the conditions and environment must be adequately reviewed in light of the significance of the Mt. Kumgang tourism project. Third, the government means to “devise a creative solution to tourism at Mt. Kumgang while taking environmental changes into full account.” Unification Ministry spokesperson Lee Sang-min added that “the ‘conditions’ mentioned here refer to a range of issues, including international affairs and inter-Korean deliberations, and to the environment and the formation of a domestic consensus, and that all those matters will be taken into consideration.”

The crux of the “creative solution” announced by the South Korean government is “resuming tourism at Mt. Kumgang.” Although North Korea said in its message that it wants the facilities torn down, the government intends to use this opportunity to find a way to resume tourism at the resort. “We will find a creative solution for resuming tourism at Mt. Kumgang while taking into account the conditions and environment we are facing,” Lee said. This reflects the view that both South and North Korea are willing to implement the Panmunjom Declaration, made on Apr. 27, 2018, and the Pyongyang Joint Declaration, made on Sept. 19, 2018.

“The Pyongyang Joint Declaration [Article 2, Clause 2] says that ‘the two sides agreed, as conditions mature, to normalize the [Kaesong] industrial complex and the Mt. [Kumgang] Tourism Project.’ The spirit of that agreement is still valid,” Lee said.

The South Korean government believes that North Korea is still committed to resuming tourism at Mt. Kumgang, as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said during this year’s New Year’s address. North Korea’s apparently heavy-handed ultimatum would suggest the end of the Mt. Kumgang project, but the announcement of the facility removal might in fact be a power play designed to push the South Korean government to do more to reinstate tours to the resort.

Another view is that North Korea is expressing its frustration at the South Korean government’s deference to the US, which is preventing it from moving boldly forward with currently feasible inter-Korean cooperation projects, including Mt. Kumgang tourism, even after three inter-Korean summits and pledges to improve inter-Korean relations. “We’re continuing to analyze North Korea’s intentions, through deliberations between the relevant ministries. Considering that Kim Jong-un was accompanied on his visit to the Mt. Kumgang resort by First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Choe Son-hui, there is speculation that the North is sending some kind of message to the US,” Lee said.

“’Removal’ is the term that the North Koreans are using,” the Unification Ministry said on Friday, making clear that the South Korean government does not intend to remove all the South Korean facilities at the resort. Lee stressed the need to inspect the facilities, which have been standing over two decades, since the Mt. Kumgang tourism project began in 1998: “There may be some buildings that are too run-down to use anymore, and there may be some that could be made usable through some repairs and renovation.”

“Individual tours per se are not subject to UN Security Council sanctions,” the Unification Ministry also confirmed. “We could review options that wouldn’t run afoul of any parts of the UN Security Council resolutions. The government’s position is that individual tours in North Korea are possible provided that tourists’ safety is guaranteed through intergovernmental deliberations and that those tourists are authorized by the government to visit North Korea,” Lee said.

While North Korea suggested that the removal question be addressed through correspondence, the government argues that officials from the two sides need to meet face-to-face. “’Technical matters’ typically refer to staff and scheduling issues. There needs to be an agreement, as well as some kind of inter-Korean meeting,” Lee insisted.

By Noh Ji-won and Kim Mi-na, staff reporters

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