N. KOREAN LEADER'S ORDER ON MT. KUMGANG

[Anchor Lead]

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered the removal of South Korean-built tourist facilities at Mount Kumgang. Now over the past years, Kumgang tourism has been a symbol of inter-Korean economic cooperation. Kim also criticized policies dependent on South Korea. His moves are being analyzed as taking extreme measures as the resumption of South Korean tours to Mount Kumgang failed to kick off.

[Pkg]

North Korean media reported that its leader strongly criticized the "mistaken policy of the predecessors" who were dependent on South Korea to develop Mount Kumgang as a tourist spot. While inspecting the resort, Kim Jong-un said the scenic mountain has been left neglected for some ten years due to the flawed policy of trying to gain easy profit. The regime's leader ordered the removal of what he called unpleasant-looking South Korean facilities in consultation with Seoul. He then ordered that new modern facilities be built using North Korean methods. According to Kim, it's wrong to view Mount Kumgang as a symbol of inter-Korean relations and to think that Kumgang tourism can't proceed without improvements in cross-border ties. He added Pyongyang will always welcome its "compatriots" from the South if they want to visit the mountain, but stressed that it's not right to rely on Seoul for Kumgang tourism. The Kumgang tourism project was a leading inter-Korean venture implemented under former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in cooperation with South Korea's Hyundai Group. It's highly unusual for Kim Jong-un to openly criticize policies from his father's era. The order to remove the facilities is seen as an expression of discontent over the failure to resume Kumgang tourism which the two Koreas agreed on during last September's summit in Pyongyang.