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We came down sort of hard on Kumgang tourism. We argued that tour companies should not be using the site in any way as long as the political and legal issues between South, North and Hyundai Asan remain unresolved. But fair is fair. Chad O’Carroll at KEI hosts the Korean Kontext podcast series, and he has recently done a wide-ranging interview with Walter Keats and Simon Cockerell, two intrepid pioneers of North Korean tourism who definitely have our respect.
Keats and Cockerell are both cautious on how far to go; they are now escorting no more than a small handful of people to the area, which is of course very much larger than the Kumgang complex itself. Neither are fully using the Hyundai Asan facilities, which are effectively shuttered. Cockerell appears to stay outside the zone altogether. Keats pays a fee to Hyundai Asan for limited use of the facilities, but notes that not much works given that Hyundai Asan has turned off the electricity and its caretakers have been ejected. There is some dispute about which of the properties in the complex actually belong to Hyundai Asan, including the Kumgangsan Hotel. But other buildings and facilities, like the restaurants, shops, bank, convenience store do not appear to be operating; when they are, it appears to be with staff brought in for the purpose rather than living on site as they did prior to December 2008.
Keats makes the obvious but important point that the real market for Kumgang is South Korean. A handful of tours have come into the Kumgang area from the North, but imagine the drive from Rason. No thanks. Given the difficulty of getting there overland from the North, it is always going to be a sideshow until the larger political issues are resolved. Keats also makes a point that we have made as well: it is now two years and counting, and increasingly obvious that even the Chinese are not going to touch Kumgang while there are larger geopolitical fish to fry.
The part of the interview dealing with Kumgang starts at about 27 minutes in, and directly responds to our earlier comments.
