S.Korea's Ananti to write off assets related to Mt Kumgang in N.Korea -Yonhap (updated)

Ananti

12/04/2022 03:40

(Adds details, background)
    April 12 (Reuters) - South Korea's Ananti  025980.KQ  will
stop businesses related to Mount Kumgang in North Korea and
write off about $41 million of assets, Yonhap news agency
reported, amid signs that Pyongyang had started dismantling
facilities in the tourist region.
    Ananti is expected to write off its assets - a golf course
and a resort - located in the Mount Kumgang tourist region that
was valued at 50.7 billion won ($41.0 million) as of last year,
Yonhap reported, citing an Ananti official. 
    Ananti declined to make an immediate comment to Reuters.
    North Korea appeared to have begun demolishing buildings at
the Ananti Golf and Spa Resort opened to South Korean tourists
in 2008 with luxurious facilities and a 19-hole golf course in
the city of Kosong, Seoul-based NK News, which monitors North
Korea, reported on Monday, citing commercial satellite imagery.
    North Korea has not confirmed the demolition there. 
    On Tuesday, state news agency KCNA reported that a forest
fire had broken out near the golf course on Saturday, damaging
unspecified facilities.
    NK News said it was not able to determine whether the fire
or the building destruction occurred first.
    In October 2019, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said South
Korea's "backward" and "shabby" facilities at the Mt Kumgang
resort must be removed and rebuilt in a modern way, as relations
cooled between the neighbours.
    Mt Kumgang was one of two major inter-Korean economic
projects, along with the Kaesong industrial zone, and an
important token of cooperation between the countries during
decades of hostilities following the 1950-53 Korean War.
    Tours to Mt Kumgang were launched in 1998 with investment
from South Korean firms such as Hyundai Asan Corp and Ananti,
providing a rare source of cash worth millions of dollars a year
for Pyongyang.
    The programme was suspended in 2008 after a North Korean
soldier shot dead a South Korean tourist who had wandered
unknowingly into a military area.
    Last week, South Korea's unification ministry, which handles
relations with the North, expressed regret over North Korea
unilaterally dismantling the Haegeumgang Hotel, a huge floating
facility owned by Hyundai Asan, docked near the golf course.
    "This not only violates the investment guarantee agreement
between the South and the North, but also undermines credibility
between business operators who have been engaged in resolving
matters through consultations," the ministry said on Friday.
    Hyundai Asan has called for its assets in the North to be
protected.
    ($1 = 1,237.2100 won)

 (Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Himani Sarkar)