Seoul has confirmed that North Korea dismantled a South Korean government facility in the special tourism zone at Mount Geumang in the North’s eastern coast. 

During a news briefing held Friday. Unification ministry spokesperson Koo Byoung-sam expressed strong regret over Pyongyang’s unilateral decision to demolish a fire station building constructed by the South in the zone, which was undertaken late last month.

The spokesperson said the government sternly urges North Korea to immediately stop destroying South Korean facilities. 

The demolished fire station was located adjacent to an inter-Korean family reunion center on the outskirts of the special tourism zone. South Korea injected two-point-two billion won into construction and equipment purchases for the two-story building.

The building was completed in July 2008, but was not actually used as the inter-Korean tourism program was suspended after South Korean tourist Park Wang-ja was shot and killed by North Korean soldiers three days after its completion.