Adolph Archer
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« on: August 27, 2013, 12:34:25 AM » |
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Chandeliers, mountain views and an 18 hole golf course... but would you stay at a luxury holiday resort inside North Korea?
Officials in Seoul said 100 people from each side would meet in September at the North's Mount Kumgang resort
Between 2000 and 2010 more than 22,000 met with their families there before North Korea stopped the reunions
Negotiations began between the two nations on Friday in the border village of Panmunjom
Its once perfectly manicured golfing greens have grown unkempt and dust gathers on the chandeliers hanging in the opulent - but empty - dining rooms of its many hotels.
The luxury Mount Kumgang resort, which lies just within North Korean territory, was once a thriving destination for families from the South and was seen as a symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.
But it has been rendered a ghost town since tourism from the South shut down in 2008, following the shooting of a South Korean tourist by North Korean guards.
Now it is hoped the resort will flourish once again as North Korea has announced it will open up the extravagant mountain resort to visitors from the South, offering family members split up by the Korean war a chance to be reunited for the first time in three years. North Korean hotel staff members walk through a hall under tall chandeliers at the exclusive Mount Kumgang hotel. Once, South Korean tourism to the resort was worth $20million a year
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Adolph Archer
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« Reply #2 on: August 27, 2013, 12:36:00 AM » |
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Members of a Chinese tourism delegation walks at a golf course at the resort. It has become a North Korean ghost-town over the past three years after the shooting of a South Korean tourist by a North Korean soldier resulted in Seoul halting tours to the complex
Officials in Seoul have said 100 people from each side would meet in September at the North's Mount Kumgang resort.
South Korea's Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-Suk said the move would 'set the stage' for regular family reunions - which were stopped by the North in 2010.
The Mount Kumgang Tourist Region is a special administrative region of North Korea established in 2002 to handle South Korean tourist traffic to the so called Diamond Mountain.
Between 2000 and 2010 more than 22,000 met with their families there before North Korea stopped the reunions.
Once, South Korean tourism to the resort was worth $20million a year. But in July 2008, Park Wang-ja, a 53 year old South Korean tourist, was shot twice and killed when she entered a military area, according to the North Korean government.
Tourism from the South shut down as a result.
Now, in a bid to tempt South Korean tour companies back to the lucrative resort, Kim Jung Un has decided to allow the reunions once again.
Negotiations began between the two nations on Friday in the border village Panmunjom, Qz.com reports. |
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