Kim Jong-un tours new resort project, signals focus on boosting North Korea’s tourism

SEOUL, Dec 31 — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversaw the launch of plans for a new beachside tourist resort, state media said yesterday, a “first big step” in a potentially wider border reopening.

The isolated North reopened its borders in August 2023 after almost four years of border closures, imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic, that prevented even its own nationals from entering.

Kim stressed the resort, part of the existing Wonsan-Kalma development project in the east, was “a first big step” in developing tourism, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

Kim toured the resort with his daughter Kim Ju-ae, “feasting his eyes with a bright smile”, according to KCNA.

This picture taken on December 29 shows North Korea’s leader Kim Jung-un and his daughter, Ju-ae inspecting a hotel during a visit to the ‘Kalma Coast Tourism Area’ in the North Korean city of Wonsan, Kangwon Province. — AFP pic/KCNA via KNS

Pictures released by KCNA showed Kim and his daughter walking along the waterfront and touring the otherwise deserted hotel development.

He expressed “great satisfaction” that facilities had been built “so that they can be utilised for successfully hosting important external, political and cultural events of the state”, KCNA said.

“If the tourist industry is developed by making active use of such favourable conditions and environment, it will open up a new realm of socialist cultural construction and bring about another motive force for promoting regional rejuvenation and national economic growth,” Kim was quoted as saying.

Analysts have said Kim showed a keen interest in developing North Korea’s tourism industry in his early years in power, with the Wonsan-Kalma development known to be one of his pet projects.

This recent undated picture released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) via KNS on December 31, 2024 shows a general aerial view of the ‘Kalma Coast Tourism Area’ in the North Korean city of Wonsan, Kangwon Province. — AFP pic/KCNA via KNS

A group of about 100 Russian tourists arrived in Pyongyang in February, the first known foreign tour group to visit since the border restrictions were lifted, and went on to a ski resort near Wonsan.

Nuclear-armed North Korea’s political, military and cultural ties with Russia have deepened since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Tourism to the North was limited before the pandemic, with tour companies saying around 5,000 Western tourists visited annually.

US citizens made up about 20 per cent of the market before Washington banned travel following the imprisonment and subsequent death of American student Otto Warmbier. — AFP