North Korea has begun dismantling a 12-story hotel on the east coast used for inter-Korean family reunions and owned by the ROK government, according to NK Pro analysis of satellite imagery, months after starting to take down some nearby buildings.

Planet Labs imagery shows the work at the Inter-Korean Family Reunions Center (이산가족면회소) in Kumgang started between May 26 and 30, sending a signal that Pyongyang would maintain anti-ROK policies despite the likelihood that South Korea would elect a new pro-engagement president days later.

Dismantlement continued on the appropriated building after Lee Jae-myung won the June 3 election and pledged to “restore trust” with Pyongyang: High-resolution imagery taken on June 12 and seen by NK Pro shows that roof structures and glass skylights on the tower have been removed and dismantled. 

Due to the slow speed of progress so far, it appears that workers may be taking the building apart piece by piece to recycle materials. It also remains possible that it will be remodeled.

Pyongyang sent a similar signal that it would continue opposing Seoul no matter who would become president ahead of the 2022 election by unilaterally removing other South Korean property in the Mount Kumgang tourist region.

The Inter-Korean Family Reunions Center, located near the border, was completed in 2008 at a cost of 50 billion won ($37 million). It is owned by the South Korean government and was formerly operated by the ROK company Hyundai Asan.

The center last hosted inter-Korean family reunions during a period of detente in Aug. 2018.

DPRK leader Kim Jong Un inspected various ROK-built facilities in Kumgang in 2019, criticizing them as “unpleasant-looking” and promising to remove them and rebuild the area in North Korean style. 

He has followed through with this promise by removing most South Korean facilities like a golf course, floating hotel, hot springs resort and various other lodgings in the last few years, though the planned construction has not yet started. 

South Korean tourism to the Mount Kumgang area ran for a decade between 1998 and 2008, until Seoul terminated tours following the fatal shooting of an ROK tourist at the site by a North Korean soldier.

Edited by Bryan Betts