North Korea will open a beach resort on its east coast next week in what authoritarian leader Kim Jong-un hopes will be the “first step” on the path to developing the country’s tourism sector.

The Wonsan-Kalma coastal tourist zone, which spans a 4-kilometre section of beach, comprises hotels, restaurants, shopping centres and a water park, according to state media.

Building began in the area in 2018, but was delayed by both construction problems and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The zone, which can accommodate roughly 20,000 guests a year, will receive its first domestic visitors on Tuesday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. It is not known when international tourists will follow.

At the resort’s grand opening on Tuesday, Kim was accompanied by his wife, Ri Sol-ju, and their daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who is his presumed heir.

Russian Ambassador Alexander Matsegora also attended as a special guest, the KCNA confirmed.

The state-run news agency reported Kim as saying that the completion of Wonsan-Kalma would be “one of the greatest successes this year”, adding that the site was “the proud first step” towards boosting the country’s tourism industry.

Analysts say Russian visitors will likely be granted access before other foreigners, given the close relationship between the two countries.

North Korea and Russia deepened their alliance last year by signing a mutual defence treaty. Pyongyang has also sent thousands of troops to its neighbour to help with its war against Ukraine.

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“I think North Korea will soon accept Russian tourists, given the Russian embassy officials attended the ceremony,” said Lee Sangkeun, an expert at South Korea’s Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank run by Seoul’s intelligence agency.

“There seems to be issues that North Korea hasn’t yet resolved in its relations with China. But North Korea has put in too much money on tourism and plans to spend more. Subsequently, to get its money’s worth, North Korea can’t help receiving Chinese tourists,” Lee added.

Pyongyang’s foreign tourist ban, which was implemented in 2020 during the pandemic, still has not been fully lifted. However, Russian groups have been permitted to visit certain parts of the country.

North Korea has completed construction on a massive tourist resort boasting colourful water slides and swimming pools, state media said on Thursday, a pet project of leader Kim Jong Un.

Kim was an enthusiastic visitor this week to the sprawling site on the isolated country’s east coast, which is set to open its doors on July 1 to domestic tourists and maybe one day foreign ones.

Analysts have said Kim showed a keen interest in developing North Korea’s tourism industry in his early years in power, with the development of the Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Area known to be a key focal point.

The nuclear-armed North reopened its borders in August 2023 after almost four years, having closed them because of the Covid-19 pandemic, during which time even its own nationals were prevented from entering.

Foreign tourism was limited though even before the pandemic, with tour companies saying around 5,000 Western tourists visited each year.

Kim on Tuesday attended a lavish inaugural ceremony for the tourist zone, which hosts accommodation for nearly 20,000 people and what Pyongyang claims is “a world-class cultural resort”, the Korean Central News Agency said.

Photos released by state media showed him sitting in a chair watching a man flying off a water slide and wearing a suit at the beach.

Wonsan Kalma houses “sea-bathing service facilities, various sports and recreation facilities” and is “equipped with all conditions… for providing the beauty of the scenic spot on the east coast in all seasons”, according to KCNA.

Kim, with “great satisfaction”, said the construction of the site would go down as “one of the greatest successes this year” and that the North would build more large-scale tourist zones “in the shortest time possible”, it added.

Kim was joined by his daughter, Ju Ae — considered by many experts to be his likely successor — and his wife, Ri Sol Ju.

South Korean media reported, based on images released by Pyongyang, that Ju Ae appears to be wearing a Cartier watch — despite such a high-end item being banned from import into North Korea under UN sanctions, imposed in response to the country’s nuclear and missile activities.

The North last year permitted Russian tourists — Pyongyang has close ties with Moscow — to return for the first time since Covid and Western tour operators returned in February this year.

Russia’s Tass news agency on Wednesday reported that a passenger train from Pyongyang had arrived in Moscow, marking the reopening of the direct rail route between the allies’ capitals after a five-year suspension.

A tourist train between Rason — home to North Korea’s first legal marketplace — and Russia’s Vladivostok resumed in May this year, according to an official from Seoul’s unification ministry.

North Korea has built a huge coastal resort which might one day open to foreign tourists.

The secretive state’s leader Kim Jong Un opened the Wonsan Kalma coastal tourist area with “great satisfaction”, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

Mr Kim toured the site and said its construction would be considered “one of the greatest successes this year” and called it “the proud first step” towards realising the government’s policy of developing tourism.

Image: Mr Kim and his daughter watch a person on a waterslide. Pic: KCNA/Reuters

The beach resort can accommodate around 20,000 visitors and will open to domestic tourists next Tuesday, but the report did not say when it would welcome foreign visitors.

Mr Kim opened the resort with his daughter, and presumed heir, Kim Ju Ae and wife Ri Sol Ju.

Image: Pic: KCNA/Reuters

The North Korean leader has been working to shape the hermit kingdom into a tourist destination as part of efforts to revive its struggling economy.

State media says North Korea will confirm plans to build large tourist sites in other locations as well.

Image: Mr Kim waves during a ceremony to celebrate the opening of the beach resort. Pic: KCNA/Reuters

North Korea is yet to fully lift the ban on foreign tourists it imposed in early 2020 in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

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From February 2024 it has been accepting Russian tourists amid the deepening relations between the two countries, but Chinese group tours remain stalled, despite making up more than 90% of visitors before the pandemic.

Russia’s ambassador to North Korea and his embassy staff attended the ceremony marking the completion of the resort, KCNA said. It did not say whether any Chinese diplomats had been invited.

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A small group of international tourists visited the country for the first time in February this year, but in March travel agencies said their tours to North Korea were paused. In April it held a marathon event which hosted foreign runners.

North Korea to open beach resort as Kim bets on tourism

3 hours ago Share Save Kelly Ng BBC News Reporting from Singapore Share Save

KCNA A Korean Central News Agency photo showing an aerial view of the Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Zone

North Korea is opening a beach resort that its leader Kim Jong Un hopes will boost tourism in the secretive communist regime, state media reports. Wonsan Kalma on the east coast will open to domestic tourists on 1 July, six years after it was due to be completed. It is unclear when it will welcome foreigners. Kim grew up in luxury in Wonsan, where many of the country’s elite have private villas, and has been trying to transform the town, which once hosted a missile testing site. State media KCNA claims the resort can accomodate up to 20,000 visitors, occupying a 4km (2.5 mile) stretch of beach, with hotels, restaurants, shopping malls and a water park – none of which can be verified.

Heavily sanctioned for decades for its nuclear weapons programme, North Korea is among the poorest countries in the world. It pours most of its resources into its military, monuments and landmarks – often in Pyongyang – that embellish the image and cult of the Kim family that has run the country since 1948. Some observers say this is an easy way for Pyongyang to earn money. While foreign tourists are allowed in, tour groups largely tend to come from China and Russia, countries with whom Pyongyang has long maintained friendly relations. “I was hoping this might signal a broader reopening to international tourism, but unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case for now,” Rowan Beard, co-founder of Young Pioneer Tours, tells the BBC. Tourism from overseas took a hit during the Covid pandemic, though, with the country closing its borders in early 2020. It did not scale back restrictions until the middle of 2023 and welcomed Russian visitors a year later. It opened to more Western visitors in February, when tourists from the UK, France, Germany and Australia drove across the border from China. It abruptly halted tourism weeks later without saying why.

KCNA Kim Jong Un, his daughter Kim Ju Ae and his wife Ri Sol Ju at a waterpark in the Wonsan Kalma