China orders removal of hotels from Mount Paekdu

China has ordered about a dozen hotels operating on its side of a scenic mountain on the border with North Korea to stop business and leave by the year's end, hotel owners said Thursday.

The hotels, which had got the Chinese order on Sept. 21, included four built and run by South Koreans and one by a pro-North Korean resident of Japan.

Jilin Province, which administratively controls Mount Paekdu, promised to make enough financial compensation for removal of the facilities but the Korean hotel owners said they would not comply with it.

The 2,750-meter peak, the highest on the Korean Peninsula, is a major tourist attraction for both Koreans and Chinese. It is co-shared by China and North Korea.

"The Jilin Changbaishan Protection, Development, and Management Committee issued an order last week demanding all hotels to leave by this year's end," Park Jong-in, a pro-North Korean hotel owner from Japan, said. "We refuse to comply as the order is a violation of our rights."

Changbaishan is the Chinese name for Mount Paekdu. China said in its notice that its decision against the hotels is part of its preparations to list the mountain as a UNESCO Natural World Heritage.

China has also announced plans to host the 2018 Winter Olympics on its side of the mountain.

Shenyang, Sept. 28 (Yonhap News)