On Wednesday, officials voted to repeal the inter-Korean economic cooperation law. (document)
Seoul:
North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament has voted to scrap a law on economic cooperation with South Korea, state media said on Thursday, as relations between the two neighbors hit a new low.
As Pyongyang accelerates its weapons development program and Seoul steps up military cooperation with Washington and Tokyo, key economic cooperation projects between the two Koreas have been suspended for years and relations between the two countries are in a deep freeze.
At a plenary session of the Supreme People’s Assembly on Wednesday, officials voted “unanimously” to repeal the law on inter-Korean economic cooperation, the Korean Central News Agency reported.
The latest decision comes after Pyongyang last month declared Seoul its main enemy, abandoned institutions committed to reunification and threatened to occupy South Korea during war.
Congress also unanimously approved a plan to repeal a special law on the operation of the Mount Kumgang tourism project, once an important symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.
The resort, built by South Korea’s Hyundai Asan Company in one of North Korea’s most scenic mountains, has attracted hundreds of thousands of tourists from South Korea.
But in 2008, the tour ended abruptly and Seoul suspended tourism after a North Korean soldier shot and killed a South Korean tourist who deviated from the approved route.
Mount Kumgang Resort was once one of the two largest projects between the two Koreas, along with the now-shuttered Kaesong Industrial Complex, where southern companies hired North Korean workers while paying Pyongyang for their services.
In 2016, Seoul withdrew from the venture, launched after an inter-Korean summit in 2000 in response to North Korea’s nuclear tests and missile launches, saying Kaesong’s profits were funding provocations.
In 2020, North Korea blew up the South Korean liaison office on its side of the border (funded by Seoul) and said it was not interested in negotiations.
Restarting its lucrative tourism industry would provide North Korea with a way to earn cash after years of coronavirus-related border closures, but now risks violating international sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic weapons programs.
As Pyongyang moves closer to Moscow – which is also under a series of global sanctions over the war in Ukraine – Seoul-based website NK News reports that Russian tourists will visit North Korea this month.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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