From the majestic complex that once hosted reunions of families separated by the Korean War (1950-1953), only ruins remain. In February, North Korea destroyed this symbol of rapprochement with the South, built in the east of the country at the foot of Mount Kumgang (Kumgangsan, or "Diamond Mountain"), the most depicted natural setting in Korean painting. After demolishing the Reunification Arch in Pyongyang in 2024, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea's official name), thus erased the last symbol of the policy of rapprochement between the two Koreas, pursued for a quarter of a century. In the preceding months, Kim Jong-un's regime blew up roads and railways connecting the two countries.

This shift in attitude toward South Korea exemplifies the diplomatic repositioning undertaken over the past two years by the DPRK, a small nation of 25 million people, sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council for its nuclear program and labeled a "rogue state" by the Western bloc for its disregard of international norms. It is further evidence of the North Korean regime's adeptness, having become an expert in "survival diplomacy" that "aims to bend the rules to seek aims on their own terms," according to Andrei Lankov, a North Korea specialist at Kookmin University in Seoul.

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