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Reuters

North Korea was dismantling a facility at its Mount Kumgang resort used for hosting meetings between families separated after the Korean war, South Korea said on Thursday, in the latest sign of strained tensions between the two Koreas.
Seoul’s unification ministry, which handles affairs between the two Koreas, urged in a statement North Korea to immediately stop the action at the site near the border.
The demolition of the facility was an “anti-humanitarian act that tramples on the wishes of separated families”, the ministry said, adding that it would consider legal measures over the action and a joint response with the international community.
Since 1988, around 130,000 South Koreans have registered their “separated families”.
As of 2025, around 36,000 of those individuals are still alive, according to official data.
Seventy-five per cent say they do not know if their relatives are alive or dead.
Some were lucky enough to be chosen to take part in occasional cross-border reunions, mostly hosted at the Mount Kumgang resort.
North and South Korea held the first such reunion in 1985, but it was not until 2000 that they became regular events following the first inter-Korean summit that year.
The reunions were marked by emotional scenes of families tearfully reuniting and parting after brief days of meeting.


North Korea has been escalating its rhetoric against its southern neighbour in recent years, designating South Korea as a “hostile state”.
Pyongyang also blew up sections of inter-Korean roads and rail lines on its side of the heavily fortified border last year, which prompted South Korea’s military to fire warning shots at the time.
In 2023, Pyongyang scrapped a 2018 military accord designed to curb the risk of inadvertent clashes between two countries that remain technically at war, prompting the South to take a similar step.
Nonetheless, there have been recent signs that North Korea may be prepared to reopen to some foreign visitors for the first time in more than five years since the closure of its borders to tourism due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Beijing-based Koryo Tours on Thursday said tours to North Korea were “officially back”, with some of its staff allowed to enter the Rason area in what it hoped would mark the relaunch of tourism.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse


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Asia

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The unification ministry urged Pyongyang to immediately stop the action at the Mount Kumgang resort


The unification ministry urged Pyongyang to immediately stop the action at the Mount Kumgang resort.


South Korea

Korean peninsula