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A RUSTY CARGO SHIP festooned with welcome banners today arrived at North Korea’s Diamond Mountain resort – marking the launch of new tours from China, which snub Seoul and aim to replace suspended South Korean trips.
For a decade, the two Koreas jointly operated a golf resort ringed by Mount Kumgang’s seaside vistas and jagged peaks just north of their border, but Seoul halted the reconciliation project in 2008 after a North Korean guard shot and killed a South Korean tourist.
With relations at a low point, the two sides have been unable to agree on terms for restarting the project. Instead, the cash-strapped North has now turned to China, seizing South Korea’s assets at the site known familiarly abroad as Diamond Mountain and evicting its workers over Seoul’s objections.
Now, North Korea is opening the site to other investors and welcoming tourists of all nationalities who will meet in the Chinese city of Yanji, drive three hours by road to the North Korean port city of Rason, and then go by cruise down the east coast by ship to Kumgang.
“We have opened the door, and it’s open to the whole world,” said Park Chol Su, vice-chairman of the Taepung International Investment Group, a North Korean government agency set up to attract foreign investment.
He said large-scale infrastructure projects were a priority and that discussions were under way with a few potential investors, though he wouldn’t give specifics.
Seoul officials say they’ll try to get foreign governments to boycott the plans, and it remains unclear how many non-Korean tourists will make their way to a resort that primarily drew nostalgic South Koreans.
The cruise would ferry tourists from Rason – a special, separately-administered economic zone in North Korea’s far northeast, a few hours’ drive from the Chinese city of Yanji – to Mount Kumgang, near the Demilitarised Zone dividing the Koreas.
The maiden voyage — a trial run — arrived today, carrying dozens of Chinese travel agents, international media and North Korean officials.
About 500 North Koreans lined up with military precision at the Rason port for a red carpet send-off yesterday, waving small flags and plastic flowers while revolutionary marches such as “Marshal Rides a White Horse” blared over the loudspeakers. Streamers swirled and balloons spiraled skyward.
The Mangyongbong, a refurbished Japanese-built cargo ship with rusty portholes and musty cabins, was used for the 21-hour overnight cruise tracing the length of North Korea’s east coast.
Some passengers slept on wooden bunkbeds while others were assigned mattresses on the floor. Simple meals were served cafeteria-style on metal trays.
A plaque on board commemorated a 1972 tour of the boat by North Korea’s founder, the late president Kim Il-sung, and bright red posters emblazoned with his sayings decorated the walls.
Park promised a “more luxurious” ship capable of carrying up to 900 passengers, perhaps next year. He said the goal is to bring as many as 4,000 visitors a day from Rason to Mount Kumgang during the peak summer season, up from some 500 per week now.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said tourism officials had held a banquet for the tourists who arrived at Diamond Mountain on Tuesday.
North Korea remains far off the beaten track for tourists — especially those from the US and South Korea, whose nations fought against North Korea and China during the 1950-53 Korean War. But Hwang said Rason is open to all tourists.
“People from any country — Jamaica, Japan, Singapore, people from various countries — can come to Rason and don’t require a visa,” said Rason’s vice mayor, Hwang Chol Nam. “That’s the reality.”
But other restrictions remain. Hwang said visitors must book with approved travel agents and remain in their guides’ company throughout. Mobile phones must be left behind in China.
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Another pointless flight on a government jet.
@v39e84kK: It’s not a pointless flight you absolute whinger. They were invited by Ukraine to visit. Every foreign dignitary that visits is a show of solidarity. To refuse the invitation would be worse.
@Seán Ó Briain: No it wouldn’t, what effect would it tangibly have? This meeting served no purpose. Ireland is already helping Ukraine and will continue to do so. This achieved nothing but wasted money and you know that.
@v39e84kK: You can imagine it now Putin on the loudspeaker in the Donbas region “the west is with us comrades! the Taoiseach came! the Tanaiste! 8 other Irish politicians! But….the Ceann Comhairle did not! onwards to protracted conflict!”
@v39e84kK: why don’t you lot ever relax and try and understand why Ireland does what we do and why we should do it.
@Paul Furey: “you lot”? Who is that exactly?
@v39e84kK: awww somebody sad they didn’t get to go on the govt jet ..? :(
@Ciaran: Yeah, that’s it Ciaran. You are a great detective. Honestly the amount of people who don’t care how the government spends their time and money is amazing.
@v39e84kK: eh Dominic Ukraine asked him to visit, how about you let the Ukrainians decide what they think is useful cause I’ve a feeling they might have a better sense of usefulness 8n their country then you do. The whinging on here is limitless sometimes
@v39e84kK: government officials need to travel abroad for diplomatic Missions. Have a day off will ya
@Sean Minihane: no they don’t. This is at least the fifth Irish politician to visit Kyiv. It’s pointless.
@v39e84kK: the whingers like you who complain about everything
Also, the EU is an economic union. I have no ill-will to that nation but why on earth are people championing that a country in absolute ruin after a war be let into an economic union of trade and free movement? That’s insanity for everyone except Ukraine, and probably not so good for them either if it does a brain-drain on the kinds of people they need to rebuild their nation.
@v39e84kK: if You were A Ukrainian would You make them comments We Have to Support Our Fellow Europeans against A Dictator
@pat seery: What does that have to do with EU membership? Oh, nothing. I see.
@v39e84kK: “…why on earth are people championing that a country in absolute ruin after a war be let into an economic union of trade and free movement?” Maybe because it would be the right thing to do?
@Earth Traveller: No. But you are entitled to your opinion. Shall we add Nigeria, Congo, Rwanda into a free trade and free movement union too? Turkey is too corrupt for the EU but Ukraine after a war is a good member state? No. It’s not. Ukraine is very corrupt, that’s well documented. Educate yourself. The place had a coup less than a decade ago essentially.
@v39e84kK: you clearly know nothing about Ukraine then do u. Economically it is a very string country
@Peter Roche: is it yeah? So how was it’s EU application going in the 20+ since it became a sovereign state? Oh it wasnt. Will it be economically strong after the war? No.
I really don’t know how Volodymyr Zelenskyy keeps going. He must be physically and mentally exhausted.
@Fr. Fintan Stack: no worries for that, US keeps sending good stuff. He is skiing every day the white powder in his office ! The best is when he is at the office on Saturday night for his TikTok party ! This is priceless..
Yemen, Syria, Libya and Palestine next.. Nah don’t thinks..
Big unit.
I hope Zelinsky asks him why we haven’t kicked out the Russian ambassador and his cadre of staff.
Most people who live here would like to see them booted out.
@Davey Ohanlon: nope because, what does that achieve for the Irish in Russia, we should be at the front of peace talks instead of in the line throw milltary aid into this mess
@Ken Red: What makes you think we would have any say in peace talks?
@Ken Red:
That’s assuming Putin wants peace and it’s also assuming that the Ukrainians and others are willing to forgo war crimes charges against Putin and his army.
Do you honestly think Putin would settle for peace without coming away without any land gains?…not a hope in hell.
The sanctions, asset seizures of his pals, loss of Russian soldiers lives, their economy, their military proven to be inept and vulnerable to western weapons.
He literally can’t afford to strike a peace deal and come away with nothing.
A peace deal with Putin will basically be a form of appeasment and no deterrent not to do the same again.
Game of Thrones expo photo Op.
Why
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