Kim Jong-un paid a visit to the seaside as he visited North Korea’s newest beach resort, despite the secretive nation currently being shut to foreign tourists. The Wonsan Kalma tourist area will be North Korea’s biggest and the country’s leader hopes it will mark a new era of tourism for Pyongyang.
Kim said the resort’s construction will go down as “one of the greatest successes this year” and hailed it as “the proud first step” towards developing North Korea’s tourism industry, according to state media. Kim toured the area and cut the inaugural tape at a lavish ceremony, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. It is claimed Wonsan Kalma has enough accommodation for 20,000 guests and visitors who will be able to swim in the sea, play sports and eat at on site restaurants and cafeterias.
The resort, in the port city of Wonsan on North Korea’s east coast, is set to open to domestic visitors next week but it remains unclear when overseas tourists will be able to visit.
North Korea hasn’t fully lifted a ban on foreign tourists imposed in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic.
It began accepting tourists from ally Russia in 2024 and earlier this year a group of Western tourists visited for the first time in five years, before Pyongyang halted arrivals weeks later.
Kim has been pushing to make North Korea a tourist destination as part of efforts to revive the isolated country’s struggling economy.
Wonsan Kalma, with a reported 2.5 mile beach, is one of Kim’s most-discussed tourism projects and KCNA reported North Korea will also confirm plans to build large tourism areas in other parts of the country.
Photos shared by state media show Kim taking in the views of Wonsan Kalma and watching someone go down a slide.
Experts argue North Korea has been slow to resume its international tourism because of factors including recent tensions with the US and South Korea, as well as concerns about Western tourists spreading a negative image of its system.
Some observers say Wonsan Kalma will have likely required a significant investment, from Pyongyang’s limited budget, meaning Chinese and other foreign tourists will eventually need to be welcomed to break even.
Russia’s ambassador to North Korea and his embassy staff attended the ceremony marking the resort’s completion, state media said.
An expert from the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank run by South Korea’s intelligence agency, said they believe North Korea will “soon accept” Russian tourists and then possibly Chinese visitors.
They said South Korean and American tours are probably some way off.
