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Kim's Order to Remove Mount Kumgang Seen as Pressure Tactic on Seoul

Christy Lee

   WASHINGTON - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's order to demolish the
   South Korean-built resort of Mount Kumgang in North Korea's
   northeastern tourism spot is seen as an attempt to pressure Seoul to
   defy international sanctions to resume inter-Korean projects.

   Kim is "trying to put domestic political pressure on [South Korean
   President] Moon Jae-in to break sanctions," said Joshua Stanton, a
   Washington-based attorney who helped draft the North Korean Sanctions
   Enforcement Act in 2016.

   Stanton said the only thing Moon can claim as a political
   accomplishment is the improvement of relations with North Korea,
   because the economy in South Korea is bad, with the declining rate of
   growth and rising rate of unemployment.

   "This is Kim Jong Un's way of saying that if you don't comply with my
   demands, I will deny you this last thing that you can claim as an
   achievement," he said.

   Since Moon began Seoul's diplomatic overtures with Pyongyang in 2018,
   he has been pushing for improving inter-Korean ties and resuming
   inter-Korean projects, including Mount Kumgang tourism that Kim has
   been eager to begin as it could become a key source of income for his
   cash-strapped country.

   But Seoul's attempts to restart inter-Korean projects were never
   realized, mostly because of Washington's reluctance to lift
   international sanctions, including the ones that ban setting up joint
   entities with North Korea that could help Pyongyang make foreign income
   to fund its nuclear weapons programs.

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