{"id":9955,"date":"2013-08-25T05:33:43","date_gmt":"2013-08-25T05:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/north-korea-angry-at-swiss-ban-on-ski-lift-sale\/"},"modified":"2013-08-25T05:33:41","modified_gmt":"2013-08-25T05:33:41","slug":"north-korea-angry-at-swiss-ban-on-ski-lift-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/north-korea-angry-at-swiss-ban-on-ski-lift-sale\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea Angry at Swiss Ban on Ski Lift Sale"},"content":{"rendered":"

{{North Korea has reacted angrily to a decision by Switzerland to block a deal to sell ski lifts to the secretive communist country.}}<\/p>\n

The equipment – which included chair lifts and cable cars – was for the Masik ski resort project which is currently under construction.<\/p>\n

But the Swiss government said last week the equipment constituted luxury goods and so was subject to UN sanctions.<\/p>\n

North Korea’s Skiers’ Association said such equipment should not be banned.<\/p>\n

The resort, it said in a statement, was aimed at giving North Koreans “highly civilised and happy living conditions and make them enjoy all blessings.<\/p>\n

“Cableway equipment for the ski resort do not produce any rocket or nuclear weapon,” it added.<\/p>\n

{{‘Prestigious propaganda project’}}<\/p>\n

The Masik ski resort site was believed to be a pet project of leader Kim Jong-un, who reportedly skied when he attended secondary school in Bern under an assumed name.<\/p>\n

It is also being viewed as a response to South Korea hosting the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

Work on the site had been delayed by heavy rains and landslides, but Kim Jong-un wanted the resort to be finished by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

The North Korean leader has repeatedly visited the site and promoted it as an attempt to enhance the lifestyle of the nation’s citizens.<\/p>\n

But Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) labelled the resort a “prestigious propaganda project for the regime”.<\/p>\n

“It is inconceivable that this resort will be used by the general public,” Seco spokeswoman Marie Avet said.<\/p>\n

The ski lift deal with Swiss company Bartholet Maschinenbau, valued at more than $7m (\u00a34.46m; 5.2m euros), is reportedly the third to fall through due to sanctions.<\/p>\n

Austrian and French manufacturers also turned down deals, citing political reasons.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{{North Korea has reacted angrily to a decision by Switzerland to block a deal to sell ski lifts to the secretive communist country.}} The equipment – which included chair lifts and cable cars – was for the Masik ski resort project which is currently under construction. But the Swiss government said last week the equipment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-9955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9955"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=9955"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=9955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}