Why does Mount Kumgang matter? And why is a lapsed tourism project, once the emblem par excellence of inter-Korean cooperation, now a source of strife between the two Koreas?

This article is the third – or perhaps 2.5th – in a series. You might want to read the other two before this one, if you haven’t already done so, for a better sense of the overall picture.

We beganwith an overview of the new row which put Mount Kumgang in the headlines and back on the inter-Korean political agenda. This was occasioned by Kim Jong Un visiting the decaying