Diamond Mountain Resort a Flashpoint Between Two Koreas
an advertisement for Diamond Mountain Resort
North Korea has seized five South Korean government-run resort facilities at the Diamond Mountain Resort, putting “confiscation” stickers on the buildings. The move is meant to pressure Seoul to resume cross-border tours that came to a halt when a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier in 2008. (Dozens of South Korean firms own more than $320 million worth of hotels and golf courses in the mountain tourist zone just north of the border.) Unfortunately, this resort is a pawn on a much larger playing field. Until 2008, liberals ruling South Korea pursued a “Sunshine Policy” of aid and joint ventures with North Korea. When South Korean President Lee Myung-bak came to power last year, he took a more forceful approach, evidenced by the tourism moratorium at Diamond Mountain Resort. As suspicion mounts that the South Korean warship that sank near a disputed sea border between the two countries, killing 40 sailors, was due to a torpedo attack by a North Korean submarine, tensions between the two countries are at an all time high. While tourism projects between nations has usually worked in favor of peace, the Diamond Mountain Resort quite possibly could turn into a flashpoint as relations worsen. Behind it all: the specter of nuclear weapons.
