Seoul, South Korea:
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the launch of plans for a new beachside tourist resort, state media said on Tuesday, a “first big step” in a possible wider reopening of borders. The isolated North reopened its borders in August 2023 after almost four years of border closures imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic, which prevented even its own nationals from entering.
Kim emphasized that the resort, part of the existing Wonsan-Kalma development project in the east, was “a first big step” in tourism development, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
Kim toured the resort with his daughter Kim Ju Ae, “treating his eyes to a beaming smile,” according to KCNA.
Photos released by KCNA showed Kim and his daughter walking along the waterfront and touring the otherwise deserted hotel complex.
He expressed “great satisfaction” that facilities have been built “so that they can be used for successfully organizing important external, political and cultural events of the state,” according to KCNA.
“If the tourism industry is developed by actively taking advantage of such favorable conditions and environment, it will open a new realm of socialist cultural construction and bring about a new driving force for promoting regional rejuvenation and national economic growth,” Kim said. .
Analysts have said that during his first years in power, Kim showed a keen interest in developing North Korea’s tourism industry, with the Wonsan-Kalma development known as one of his pet projects.
A group of about 100 Russian tourists arrived in Pyongyang in February, the first known foreign tour group to visit since border restrictions were lifted, and continued to a ski resort near Wonsan.
Nuclear-armed North Korea’s political, military and cultural ties with Russia have deepened since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Tourism to the north was limited before the pandemic, with tour companies saying around 5,000 Western tourists visited each year.
American citizens made up about 20 percent of the market before Washington banned travel following the capture and subsequent death of American student Otto Warmbier.
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