* N.Korean leader has ordered 'shabby' facilities demolished

* Ananti says will 'clean the slate' on N.Korea operations

* Shuttered businesses were once sign of inter-Korean engagement

April 12 (Reuters) - Fourteen years after Ananti Inc's tourist business in North Korea was suspended, the South Korean company has said it would write off assets worth about $41 million amid signs Pyongyang had started dismantling the facilities.

Ananti will write off a golf course and a resort - valued at a total 50.7 billion won ($41 million) as of last year - located in the Mount Kumgang tourist region and does not plan to pursue future business in North Korea, it said on Tuesday.

Its operations in North Korea have been suspended since 2008, after a North Korean soldier shot dead a South Korean tourist who had wandered unknowingly into a military area.

"With more than 1.3 trillion won in total assets currently held by Ananti, and seven platforms that are being operated or being pursued, we decided that rather than continuously damage the brand value and trust due to an asset worth about 50 billion won, it would be the right way to clean the slate and focus on the future," Ananti said in a statement.

The Mount Kumgang closure is regrettable, but in the future Ananti will focus on expanding its brand in South Korea and other overseas locations, the company added.

North Korea appeared to have begun demolishing buildings at the Ananti Golf and Spa Resort, said an official with South Korea's unification ministry, which handles relations with the North.

The site had luxurious facilities and a 19-hole golf course when it was completed in the city of Kosong in 2008, but never opened its doors to South Korean tourists because of the shooting that happened before it became operational.

North Korea has not confirmed news of the demolition.

On Tuesday, state news agency KCNA reported that a forest fire had broken out near the golf course on Saturday, damaging unspecified facilities.

Seoul-based NK News, which monitors North Korea and first reported the golf course demolition, said it was unclear from commercial satellite imagery whether the fire or the building destruction occurred first.

Mt Kumgang was one of two major inter-Korean economic projects, along with the Kaesong industrial zone, and an important token of cooperation between the countries during decades of hostilities following the 1950-53 Korean War.

Tours to Mt Kumgang were launched in 1998 with investment from South Korean firms such as Hyundai Asan Corp and Ananti, providing a rare source of cash worth millions of dollars a year for Pyongyang.

In October 2019, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said South Korea's "backward" and "shabby" facilities at the Mt Kumgang resort must be removed and rebuilt in a modern way, as relations cooled between the neighbours.

Resuming economic cooperation is among the many efforts at engagement that appear on hold for the foreseeable future amid Pyongyang's increasingly confrontational moves and South Korean president-elect Yoon Suk-yeol's vow to take a harder line on the North.

Last week the unification ministry expressed regret over North Korea unilaterally dismantling the Haegeumgang Hotel, a huge floating facility owned by Hyundai Asan, docked near the golf course.

"This not only violates the investment guarantee agreement between the South and the North, but also undermines credibility between business operators who have been engaged in resolving matters through consultations," the ministry said on Friday.

Hyundai Asan has called for its assets in the North to be protected.

($1 = 1,237.2100 won) (Reporting by Joyce Lee and Josh Smith; Additional reporting by Soo-hyang Choi; Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Himani Sarkar, Kirsten Donovan)