North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol Ju (left) inspecting the construction site of the Wonsan-Kalma coastal tourist area in Kangwon Province. Photo: KCNA
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https://scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2182556/north-koreas-new-beach-resort-nearly-ready-tourists East Asia
North Korea’s new beach resort will soon be ready for tourists
- The development, which comes with a water slide and cinema, is located in an area previously used for artillery drills and ballistic missile launches
- The project was built according to the precise demands of Kim Jong-un, who is said to have spent his childhood summers in the area
A giant beach resort being built in North Korea to attract more tourists to the country is “nearing completion”, a US monitor said on Thursday.
Satellite pictures released by 38 North showed rapid progress on the sprawling development, now equipped with a water slide and cinema.
The seaside strip, known as the Wonsan-Kalma Coastal Tourist Area, is squeezed between a new airport and the country’s east coast, in an area that has previously been used for artillery drills and ballistic missile launches.
The site’s construction has been closely overseen by leader Kim Jong-un and plans have been announced for a grand opening in October, when the country marks the 74th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea.
Kim, who reportedly spent his childhood summers in the area, visited the site at least three times last year according to state media, sometimes berating officials in charge of the works and issuing detailed orders.
Kim “found that the whole street was not perfect in the artistic aspect”, the official KCNA news agency reported after his October inspection.
“He instructed officials to envisage the construction of more hotels and inns with over 30 floors”, along with more games arcades, movie theatres and an “all-event stadium”, plus a “large water park and funfair”, said the report.
Satellite photos from December 28 indicated the resort was growing into a “vast beach complex”, 38 North said.
The resort project, mentioned by Kim in his key New Year speech, is intended as a centrepiece of the country’s nascent tourism industry as Pyongyang seeks to develop its economy despite international sanctions imposed over its nuclear weapons programmes.
US President Donald Trump, a former real estate developer, applauded North Korea’s tourism potential last year following his landmark summit with Kim in Singapore.
After a four-minute screening of a bizarre Hollywood-style trailer, Trump pointed to potential property projects in the cash-strapped nation.
Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju inspecting the construction site of the Wonsan-Kalma coastal tourist area in Kangwon Province. Photo: KCNA
“As an example, they have great beaches,” he told reporters. “You see that whenever they are exploding their cannons into the ocean. I said: ‘Boy, look at that view. Wouldn’t that make a great condo?’”
At present, the US bans its own citizens from tourism in the North.
38 North said the push on the development showed “a desire to demonstrate that North Korea, despite the economic sanctions in place, has an economy that is moving forward and showing signs of prosperity. It may also reflect an expectation that as the country improves its external political relations, tourism will follow”.
North Korea receives an estimated 100,000 foreign tourists a year, the vast majority of them Chinese, according to industry sources, but Pyongyang issues no official figures itself.
Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans used to visit Mount Kumgang near the inter-Korean border every year, travelling to a Seoul-funded tourist resort that was the first major cooperation project between the neighbours.
The trips came to an abrupt end in 2008 when a North Korean soldier shot dead a South Korean tourist who strayed off the approved path and Seoul suspended travel.