South Korea to start joint training at North Korean ski resort as planned

A slope of the Masikryong ski resort, near North Korea's east coast port city of Wonsan, on Feb 19, 2017. PHOTO: AFP
A South Korean delegation arrives at the inter-Korea transit office near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing the two Koreas in Goseong on Jan 23, 2018, to cross the border into the North to inspect venues for joint events. PHOTO: AFP

SEOUL (Reuters, Bloomberg) - South Korea will begin a joint training programme at the Masikryong ski resort in North Korea on Wednesday(Jan 31) as had been initially planned, the South's Ministry of Unification said, with a 45-person delegation set to depart for a two-day trip.

The South Korean delegation, which includes roughly 30 athletes, will fly in a chartered plane at 9 am on Wednesday from Yangyang International Airport in northeastern South Korea to Kalma Airport in Wonsan, the ministry said in a mobile text.

They will fly on an Asiana Airlines plane, a ministry official told Reuters. The charter had been set up in order not to conflict with existing sanctions imposed against North Korea by the United States, the official said without providing further details.

According to US unilateral sanctions against North Korea, no ship or aircraft can visit the United States within 180 days of going to North Korea.

The South Korean delegation will be joined on their return trip by North Koreans who will visit the South to prepare for the Pyeongchang Olympics that begin on Feb 9.

"Seeing South Koreans practice at a place he built is a propaganda coup for Kim Jong Un," said Lee Su-seok, a North Korea analyst at South Korea's Institute for National Security Strategy.

"Masikryong represents his era, and he is relying on the ski resort rather than the 20-year-old mountain resort to emerge from his father's shadow."

North Korea is seeking to capitalise on South Korea's desire for a peaceful Winter Games as international sanctions over its nuclear arms program further squeeze its finances.

Kim, a skiing fan who was educated in Switzerland, ordered soldiers to build the Masikryong resort shortly after he took power in 2011.

North Korea says it built the resort in just one year, boasting that it would have taken other nations a decade. North Korea used a loophole on luxury goods in the United Nations Security Council resolution to bring in European-made snowmobiles and other equipment to Masikryong.

While the European Union considers ski equipment to be luxury goods, China told a UN panel of experts that skiing was a "popular sport for people."

Fresh UN sanctions passed last year will make it harder for Kim to maintain the resort, according to Christopher Green, senior adviser on the Korean peninsula at the International Crisis Group in Amsterdam.

While China might justify snow plows as necessary for public safety, restrictions on industrial machinery would block sales of a ski lift, Green said.

Masikryong, which means a mountain pass where horses rest, has 10 ski runs, with the longest one stretching as far as 5,100 m.

A giant electronic screen displays propaganda videos at the bottom of the hills, according to 2015 footage by Singaporean video journalist Aram Pan. The nearby 11-storey hotel, painted in orange, has 120 rooms, an indoor swimming pool, a karaoke bar, a gym and a children's room with books like "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," the footage showed.

A shop sells North Korean handbags, and foreigners can use an internet room. TVs in the guest rooms show channels from the U.K., China, Japan, Germany and Russia, Pan said, adding that locals can't watch them.

Visitors to the ski resort have so far included Chinese diplomats, Dennis Rodman, a former NBA star who has befriended Kim over several trips to North Korea, and Japanese pro-wrestler-turned-lawmaker Antonio Inoki.

The resort has also seen controversy.

Human-rights activists were outraged last year when a team of NBC journalists showed women and children using axes and sticks to clear snow from the bus route into the resort.

Jin Chun Kyu, a South Korean who visited Masikryong in November under a US Green Card, said the resort takes dollars, yuan, yen and euro, as well as North Korean won.

He said it costs about US$100 a day to ski at the resort, which restricts the daily number of visitors to 2,000.

"It's quite spacious," said Jin, who visited before the season opened.

"You don't have to wait long to ride a lift." The resort has "no problem" as a venue for joint training and practice games,

South Korea's Unification Ministry said by email on Jan 26 after its inspection team visited the resort. Its slopes and snow are in "fine" condition, while Kalma is well managed, it said.

"Pyeongchang's Olympic appeal is rubbing off on Masikryong," said Lee Choong Ki, a professor of tourism at Seoul's Kyung Hee University.

"North Korea is getting more global publicity than it could ever have by spending tons of its own money.

North and South Korea launched rare talks early in January to bring North Koreans to the Winter Olympics after the North's leader said in a New Year's address he was willing to open discussions with Seoul.

The two Koreas have since agreed on several things, including cultural performances by North Korea in the South and a unified women's ice hockey team for the Olympics.

They were also scheduled to hold a joint cultural performance in North Korea's Mount Kumgang resort but Pyongyang decided to call it off late on Monday, blaming South Korean media for encouraging "insulting" public sentiment about the North.

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.