China to Demolish Baekdu Facilities

The Changbai Mountain Protection Development Management Committee, which is developing Jilin City Mount Baekdu, has unilaterally notified Korean investors that it will demolish all hotels and lodging facilities at the entrance of the Mount Baekdu hiking path within this year. This has bought the resistance of Korean investors.

On September 21, the Changbai Mountain Management Committee sent official documents to the management of five lodging facilities at the North entrances, saying it plans to finish the demolishing operations within this year.

In the notification, the committee said, “We have acquired demolition approval from the authorities to register Mount Baekdu as a world natural heritage site. Please choose one out of two real-estate evaluation companies before the 25th so as to assess the price of the real estate before the demolishment.”

The committee added, “If the land-owners of the buildings that will be demolished do not choose an evaluation company, the committee will make the selection to proceed with the demolishment.”

Those that will be demolished are mostly lodging facilities and restaurants inside the northern hiking path. Out of these, Korean run facilities are the Jilin Heavenly Hot Springs & Tourism Hotel (representative Lee Dae-bong), Changbai Mountain Hot Springs Tourism Hotel (Park Sun-ung), Changbai Mountain International Tourism Hotel (Park Jeong-in), and Daewoo hotel. Park Jeong-in, president of Changbai Mountain International Tourism Hotel, is an ethnic Korean with North Korean nationality.

They have invested a sum somewhat around 3.0 million to 6.99 million dollars (280 million to 660 million won) from the mid 1990s to the early 2000s in their hotels.

To develop Mount Baekdu, a remote region of China, the Jilin City authorities have guaranteed Korean investors a hotel management period of 15 to 45 years. Therefore, the hotels are guaranteed to operate from at least 2018, to as long as 2038.

Korean investors are protesting at this, saying, “The committee can not demolish without logical reasons what the authorities have legally approved.” They have ignored the notification limit (25th) the committee set for choosing a real-estate evaluation company, and are not complying with the committee’s requests.

China, which plans to have Mount Baekdu registered as a world natural heritage by UNESCO by February of 2008, will apply for it to be registered by next February, and is putting a lot of effort into maintaining Mount Baekdu, such as investing a total 20 billion yuan (2.4 trillion won).

orionha@donga.com