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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the destruction of South Korean-made hotels and other tourist facilities at the North's Diamond Mountain resort, apparently because Seoul won't defy international sanctions and resume South Korean tours at the site. Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday that Kim had visited the resort and described its facilities as "shabby" and lacking national character. The report said Kim criticized North Korea's policies pushed under his late father as too dependent on the South. (Reuters Photo)
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Kim's comments came during a prolonged freeze in relations with Seoul and are a major setback to liberal South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who met Kim three times last year while expressing ambitions to reboot inter-Korean economic engagement, which looks increasingly less likely amid faltering nuclear negotiations between Washington and Seoul. (AP Photo)
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Lee Sang-min, spokesman of Seoul's Unification Ministry, said the South will "actively defend the property rights of our people" and plans to accept any proposed talks by North Korea over the facilities. (Reuters Photo)
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Kim instructed officials to entirely remove the "unpleasant-looking facilities" built by the South after discussing the matter with South Korean officials and construct "new modern service facilities our own way that go well with the natural scenery of Mt. Kumkang. (Reuters Photo)
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Tours to Diamond Mountain were a major symbol of cooperation between the Koreas before the South suspended them in 2008 after a North Korean guard fatally shot a South Korean tourist there. (Reuters Photo)
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Kim said that the buildings are just a hotchpotch with no national character at all, and that they were built like makeshift tents in a disaster-stricken area or isolation wards. (Reuters Photo)
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South Korea's government and companies have built about a dozen tourist facilities in the Diamond Mountain area to accommodate the tours that began in 1998, including hotels, restaurants, spas, a concert hall and a golf course. (Reuters Photo)
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North Korea said it froze and confiscated all South Korean properties at the resort in 2010 after blaming Seoul for the continued suspension in tours. (Reuters Photo)
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