Seoul again asks Pyongyang for talks over Mt. Geumgang issue

Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul attends a National Assembly Diplomacy and Unification Committee meeting at the Assembly in Seoul, Friday. Yonhap

By Kim Yoo-chul

South Korea again has asked North Korea for talks regarding the fate of the Mount Geumgang tourism project after Pyongyang notified South Korea of its plan to "unilaterally remove" South Korean-invested facilities and structures at the inter-Korean project.

"According to the government's consistent stance in dealing with the Mount Geumgang tourism project based on agreements between the Koreas, South Korea will handle the issue accordingly, patiently and thoughtfully," Unification Ministry deputy spokesman Kim Eun-han told reporters in a briefing Friday. "Seoul wants Pyongyang to respond to our request in a positive manner."
The government official admitted that North Korea issued an ultimatum to South Korea saying that Pyongyang will completely dismantle South Korean structures and other assets there if the South does not act on its repeated demand to clear them out.

However, Kim didn't elaborate on what South Korea will do if the North tears down South Korean-built structures, hotels and other facilities at the resort.

"Yes, recent documents which North Korea sent included a phrase of 'last warning.' But the documents didn't specify exactly when North Korea expected to dismantle facilities in the resort," the unification ministry official said, adding South Korea is taking the North's recent request seriously.

North Korea recently ridiculed South Korea over Seoul's insistence on holding talks to resolve all outstanding issues at Mount Geumgang.

"On November 11, we sent an ultimatum, warning that if the (South Korean) authorities persist in their useless assertion, we will take it as an abandonment of the withdrawal, and take resolute measures for unilaterally pulling down the facilities. However, they have remained answerless until today," the North's official KCNA said.

"We will develop Mount Geumgang to be a world-renowned tourist resort with responsibility and in our own ways as its owner for the sake of the nation and posterity. There is no room for South Korea to find its place there."

A few weeks ago, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered his staff to demolish all South Korean-invested facilities after describing them as "shabby and unpleasant-looking."

After the order, North Korean authorities asked South Korea to remove the facilities. However, it refused to accept the South's offer to hold face-to-face working-level discussions. South Korea proposed sending delegates, including government officials and businesspeople, to the North for the talks. But North Korea said it would not send an invitation for them.

Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul met Hyundai Group chief Hyun Jeong-un on Thursday afternoon to explore possible ways to save South Korean assets there.

Hyun is chairwoman of Hyundai Asan, the sole operator of the Mount Geumgang project after the North authorized the South Korean company to do business there for 50 years. The resort project has been suspended more than a decade after a female South Korean tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier. Hyundai had invested some 900 billion won in the resort.

The North's ultimatum came after little progress in talks aimed at denuclearizing North Korea and the Korean Peninsula. The cash-strapped North asked South Korea and the United States to ease economic sanctions first before applying steps to denuclearize. But Washington has been uncooperative, asking the North to present rather detailed and comprehensive denuclearization steps.

President Moon Jae-in agreed with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at their summit last September in Pyongyang to restart South Korean tours to Mount Geumgang and normalize operations of the Gaeseong Industrial Park, another inter-Korean economic symbol. Kim welcomed the agreement as the two inter-Korean projects are a valuable cash source for the North's moribund economy.

Unification chief Kim Yeon-chul plans to meet White House officials and other senior U.S. government officials in Washington, D.C., next week. Ministry officials said the minister will try to persuade them to restart "conditional" Mount Geumgang tours.

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