North Korea appears to be dismantling yet another resort facility owned by South Korea’s Hyundai Asan in the Mount Kumgang tourist zone, NK Pro analysis of satellite imagery shows, following the removal of at least five of the company’s other properties in the area in recent months.

According to Planet Labs imagery, the roofs of several small bungalows in the Kumgang Pension Town (금강펜션타운) changed color between Aug. 12 and 18, resembling the start of recent work to dismantle the company’s other properties and likely indicating it’s the newest target for removal. 

NK News reported in 2017 that North Korea appeared to have illegally taken over the Kumgang Pension Town without proper negotiations with Hyundai Asan and began hosting tourists there under the name Kosong Port Accommodations (고성항숙소).

Work appeared to begin at the Kumgang Pension Town between Aug. 12 and 18 | Images: Planet Labs PBH, edited by NK Pro

DPRK leader Kim Jong Un promised to remove the property in a late 2019 visit, calling all South Korean-built facilities in Mount Kumgang “shabby” and a “hotchpotch with no national character at all.” 

Authorities started to dismantle facilities at the inter-Korean tourism zone in March this year, beginning with the company’s Haegumgang Hotel, a floating structure which was once a popular nightspot in Saigon.

Pyongyang then appeared to destroy a golf course and resort owned by another ROK company Ananti in April. While state media claimed the damage was the result of a forest fire, workers have appeared consistently active in satellite imagery of the site in the months since. 

Hyundai Asan was in the spotlight again last month, when NK Pro was first to report that North Korea was removing their East and West Onjong Pavilions, Kumgangsan Culture House and Kuryong Village properties. 

The company later confirmed their main office building was also destroyed as part of the new round of removals, which the South Korean unification ministry condemned as a “clear violation of inter-Korean agreements” and an “illegal infringement on [South Korean] property rights.”

Pyongyang “must immediately cease its unilateral actions and move to address these issues through dialogue,” the ministry added.

NK Pro also found signs that work may have started in July on breaking down a South Korean government-owned 12-story hotel built to host inter-Korean family reunions. The latest imagery taken Aug. 20 shows continuing activity in the hotel’s parking lot, but it’s unclear if the hotel structure itself is being dismantled. 

It appears workers are breaking down and collecting materials for reuse at most of the sites instead of blowing them up like they did with the South’s Kaesong liaison office in 2020.

Previously, North Korea quietly demolished Hyundai Asan’s Kumgang Family Beach Hotel in 2017, which didn’t receive media attention in the South.

Hyundai Asan’s other properties appeared intact in the Aug. 20 Planet Labs imagery, including the Kumgang Caravan — a collection of 20 camper trailers next to the Kumgang Pension Town — the Hotel Kumgangsan, Hotel Oekumgang, Kosong Port Beach Village, Forest Domes and Onchon Village. All of these were either explicitly marked for demolition or shown in state media reports on Kim Jong Un’s 2019 visit. 

Kim ordered officials at the time to build “new modern service facilities our own way” after removing the South Korean facilities, including the new “Kosong Port coastal tourist area, Pirobong mountaineering tourist area, Haegumgang coastal park area and sports cultural area” featuring a “world-level hotel, golf course, [and] skiing ground.” 

The new home-grown resorts should be built “in 3-4 stages on a yearly basis,” Kim said. He indicated in a report at the Jan. 2021 party congress that the project should be finished by the end of 2025.

Pyongyang closed the country’s borders to tourism in early 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and has not signaled intentions to reopen anytime soon due to lingering fears of new outbreaks. 

Last week, Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that authorities removed pandemic-related restrictions on domestic tourism, and state TV ran a segment encouraging tourism to Mount Kumgang, indicating authorities could soon begin running tours to existing facilities in the area or kick-start Kim’s grand plans for rebuilding the zone. 

Edited by Bryan Betts