Seoul, South Korea - The Unification Ministry in Seoul on Thursday said that Pyongyang was dismantling a facility used for families separated since the 1950-53 Korean War to reunite.

"We sternly urge North Korea to immediately stop this demolition," said ministry spokesman Koo Byoung-sam, adding that Seoul would consider legal steps against the North's destruction of property in the Mount Kumgang tourist area.

North Korea last year revoked a law on promoting economic cooperation on the Korean Peninsula, following a decision to designate South Korea as its "number one" enemy.

It also revoked a law permitting international travel to the special zone in the Kumgang Mountains, where both countries jointly operated a tourism program and where the family reunion facility is located.

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North Korea also started cutting off rail and road connections to South Korea, citing national security and conflict prevention, amid rising regional tensions.

There have been no direct exchanges across the heavily militarized border between the north and south for several years, but this wasn't always the case.

During a brief period of rapprochement in the early 2000s, North Korea opened the Kaesong special zone, where South Korean companies employed North Korean workers to produce goods like textiles.

North Korea also welcomed thousands of South Korean tourists to the Kumgang Mountains, but the tone has since shifted.

At a meeting of the ruling Workers' Party at the end of 2023, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un described inter-Korean relations as being between two warring states.

He also called for South Korea to be designated as the main enemy in the country's socialist constitution.