North Korea tells the South: joint-owned resort is ours now

North Korea yesterday gave South Koreans working at a jointly-run tourist resort 72 hours to leave, saying time had run out to resolve a long-standing dispute over what was once a symbol of co-operation between the rival Koreas.

The scenic Mount Kumgang resort has been closed since a North Korean soldier shot and killed a South Korean tourist there in 2008, drying up a lucrative source of hard currency for the impoverished North.

Pyongyang has suffered large losses due to the South’s “unilateral suspension” of operations at the resort, a spokesman for North Korea’s Guidance Bureau of Special Zone for International Tour of Mt Kumgang.

He said the North “has provided several opportunities for negotiations and made every sincere effort, advancing a variety of choices so the properties may be dealt with according to the will of enterprises of the South side”.

Chung-in Moon of Yonsei University in Seoul said: “This is not good. North Korea has been sending a very clear message, but our government has been delaying the decision.”

The resort – comprising hotels, restaurants and a golf course – was opened in 1998 during a decade-long period of rapprochement between the two Koreas, known in the South as the “Sunshine Policy” years.

That period ended in 2008 with the election in South Korea of conservative president Lee Myung-bak, who declared there would be no aid for the destitute North until it abandoned its nuclear arms programme.

Inter-Korean ties have declined sharply in the past three years, hitting a low last year when 50 South Koreans were killed in two attacks and the North unveiled a uranium enrichment facility. However, tensions have eased this year.

The North’s leader, Kim Jong-il, is currently visiting Russia’s far east, where he is due to meet Russian president Dmitry Medvedev later this week.

Analysts say he is probably seeking economic aid and investment pledges from Moscow, mirroring similar requests made during a trip to China in May. They say he is also seeking Russia’s support to press the United States, South Korea and Japan to restart aid-for-disarmament talks. Dialogue sponsor Beijing backs Pyongyang’s calls for an immediate restart.

At its height, 300,000 South Koreans each year visited the Mt Kumgang resort, generating tens of millions of dollars for the North Korean government.

After months of threats and counter-threats, Pyongyang said it would now “legally dispose” of South Korean assets from Mt Kumgang after Seoul failed to meet Friday’s final deadline to agree on asset disposal.

South Korean assets at the resort are worth more than $370 million, said South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which oversees inter-Korean affairs.

North Korea said the South Koreans working there had 72 hours to leave. Some 14 of its nationals were stationed at the complex as of yesterday.

Unification ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said: “We cannot accept this ultimatum and hold North Korea responsible for all of the consequences that may follow.”

The resort was built by an affiliate of the South’s Hyundai Group at a cost of tens of millions of dollars. Pyongyang has said it wants to make it an international tourist destination with a casino, with an eye to luring big-spending Chinese tourists.