North Korean “Supreme Leader” Kim Jong Un officially inaugurated the Wonsan‑Kalma coastal resort on June 24 — a lavish project covering over 2.5 miles of beach, outfitted with hotels, restaurants, shopping centers, and a water park.
Framed by state media as the “first step” toward a domestic tourism boom, the facility is set to open its doors to North Koreans on July 1, with purported capacity for up to 20,000 visitors per year.
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The Wonsan-Kalma resort, originally unveiled in 2014, suffered multiple delays. In 2019, Kim Jong Un postponed the project, asserting he would not compromise on quality. Behind the scenes, analysts attributed this delay to sanctions-related import restrictions, according to Business Insiders.
That beach is in Wonsan, on the Kalma peninsula — a stretch of North Korea’s eastern coast now home to dozens of hotels and apartments — and is the latest puzzling artifact of Kim Jong Un’s grandiose ambitions.
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“This is by far larger than anything else Kim has done” in tourism, Bruce W. Bennett, an expert in North Korean affairs at RAND, told Business Insider.
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The question is who, exactly, will flock there.
* Original Article:
North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un to Open Gigantic Beachfront Resort to Boost Tourism