North Korea opens the beach resort for 20,000 visitors - who comes?

North Korea opens the beach resort for 20,000 visitors - who comes?

Seoul - Kim Jong Un has personally cut the band for a new resort, which the state media celebrated as a “tourism city of a national treasure level”. It is a luxurious coastal development that stands against the background of the hard reality of hunger and need described by human rights observers in North Korea.

the Kalma beach resort

According to the official KCNA intelligence service, Kim opened the extensive Kalma beach resort with water parks, high-rise buildings and accommodations for almost 20,000 guests-an impressive demonstration of extravagance in one of the most mysterious nations in the world. The Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourism Zone was inaugurated on June 24th and is located on the east coast of North Korea. KCNA reported that "the service for domestic guests will begin on July 1st", but did not provide any details at prices, permissions or transport options.

opening of the Kalma Bahnhof

limited international participation

International participation in the opening ceremony was limited to the Russian ambassador and his employees, which indicates a growing approach between Pyongyang and Moscow, while the isolation of West under Kim's authoritarian rule increases. UN Human Rights Representative Volker Turk described North Korea under Kim's regime as "a suffocating, claustrophobic environment in which life is a daily struggle without hope".

tourism in North Korea

returning tourists reported CNN that they were subject to strict rules what they were allowed to photograph and what they were not, and that in addition to the outdoor activities, they had to look at a rehearsed dance performance of North Korean children.

"Wonsan-Kalma is currently only open to North Koreans, but we should not be surprised to see Russians in the resort soon," said Rachel Minyoung Lee, a non-resident fellow of the 38 North program at the Stimson Center. "In a larger context, the opening of a large beach resort such as Wonsan-Kalma helps to strengthen the narrative of the state media about Kim's folk politics and to compensate for Kim's focus on building the national defense," added Lee.

a national profit?

in a country in which international tourism has mostly only been open to Russian nationals since the end of Covid 19 pandemic and in which domestic trips are severely restricted, the new development raises familiar questions about access, target group and economic feasibility.

"The initial target group of this resort will be the privileged domestic elite of Pyongyang, such as party officials and other high-ranking personalities," said Lim Eul-Chul, professor of North Korean studies at the Kyungnam University in South Korea.

"The ceremony of the Wonsan-Kalma Resort reflects Kim's vision of a’ socialist civilization and is part of his strategic effort to achieve economic breakthroughs by the tourism industry. "

historical background

North Korea's most important experiment with international tourism began at the end of the 1990s when the picturesque area around the mountain of Kumgang on the southeast coast of visitors from South Korea was open. The project was celebrated as a rare symbol of intercorean engagement during a phase of careful approach.

In the following decade, almost two million South Koreans traveled to this location, which Pyongyang secured a critical source of income in a hard currency. But the initiative came to an abrupt end in 2008 when a North Korean soldier killed a South Korean tourist, who reported reported to a limited military zone - an incident that illustrated the fragility of cross -border cooperation and made the South Koreans exploiting the tours for an indefinite period.

The future of the Kalma Resort

The question that surrounds the new resort is whether one of the most mysterious and repressive countries in the world is ready to venture into international tourism, possibly to increase its foreign exchange reserves and reputation. So far, Russians seem to be the only foreign tour groups that have received access to the beach resort.

The Vostok Intur travel agency based in Vladiwostok advertises three travel packages-one in July and two in August-at prices of about $ 1,840. According to your website, the first tour for July 7 is planned and will take eight days. The travelers fly from Pyongyang to Wonsan, spend four nights in the resort and visit the nearby Mascherong Ski Resort.

Kim stated that an expansion of the tourism zones of North Korea should be formally decided in the coming months during the next congress of the ruling party. The experiences gained from Kalma are also to be used to develop "promising large-scale tourism and culture zones" in other parts of the country. Kim's personal commitment to the project was emphasized by at least seven visits to the Kalma buildingell

symbolic event for leadership

For Kim's regime, the conclusion of the resort is considered a significant success and as an opportunity to show the country's progress in the middle of strict international sanctions. In another symbolic act, Kim was accompanied by his wife Ri Sol Ju and his daughter, who is widely considered a possible successor. "At the event, the apparent full presence of Kim Jong implies that the project is aimed at continuing the heir of its predecessors and maintaining it for future generations," said Lim from Kyungnam University in South Korea.

The plans for the resort were first presented in 2013 as part of Kim's more extensive vision, Wonsan, a historically important port city, to transform into a center of economic and leisure activities. The project has been delayed several times due to pandemic and international sanctions that affect North Korea's nuclear and rocket programs.

Despite the promising visions and pictures of a mysterious guide who toured the wave pool and water slides, experts expressed concerns about the future of the goal. "It remains to be seen whether this resort Kim Jong Un will bring the urgently needed long-term economic profit: Wonsan-Kalma is hardly a tourist hotspot," said Dr. Edward Howell, a North Korea expert at the University of Oxford.

"Since 2020, Kim Jong Un has accepted an increasingly strict attitude towards social control; he suffocates any signs of ingress from outside information and ideologies into the DVRK," emphasized Howell. "If Western tourists come to the resort at all, the prevailing regime will want to ensure that their actions and movements will remain regulated and controlled."