Pyongyang, North Korea – The North Korean government in Pyongyang is reportedly furious over the Swiss government’s decision to forbid the sale of ski lifts to the isolated communist country.
It’s the latest setback for dictator Kim Jong-un’s plan for a “world class” ski resort in his country at Masik Pass in Kangwon Province. He has ordered his military to complete construction of ski runs, a hotel, heliport and cable cars by the end of this year. After first drawing international criticism for having his military spend money and labor on a lavish enterprise while many in his country go hungry, heavy summer rains temporarily halted construction after they caused landslides and collapsed part of the building site.
Last month, the Swiss government blocked the sale ski lifts to the reclusive and impoverished Asian nation, citing United Nations sanctions against luxury imports. Swiss ski lift company Bartholet Maschinenbau would have earned a reported $7 million Swiss francs ($7.6 million USD) in the deal, but a spokesperson for Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), Maria Avet, cited the resort’s potential propaganda value and unlikely access to the resort by the general public in explaining her agency’s decision to block it.
While reportedly angry over Switzerland’s move, North Korea’s government remains undeterred. Their plans are said to now call for transferring a single tiny ski lift already existing elsewhere in the country at Samjiyeon to the site at Masik Pass. And Kim Jong-un’s latest call for Seoul to share the skiing events of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games at PyeongChang with his Masik Pass facility has been officially rebuffed by the South Korean government and Olympic officials.
“Co-hosting goes against International Olympic Committee regulations which stipulate that, unlike the World Cup, all the Olympic events be held within the host city,” South Korea’s Olympic organizing committee said in a news release. “We should make sure technology and administrative works are in optimal condition in order to host an event- and athlete-oriented Olympic Games. Holding some of the events in the Masik resort, more than 300 kilometers away from Pyeongchang, cannot guarantee meeting this goal.”