A view of the Wonsan-Kalma shore Tourist Zone under construction (Picture: Reuters)
North Korea is a country you’d least expect a giant beach resort to open up in but this is exactly what is happening.
Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Area could finally open four years overdue after images show paved roads, car parks and a turtle-shaped arena.
The resort includes hotels, shops, and other facilities, and even beach chairs have sprung up suggesting the resort could open up pretty soon.
The resort has only ever hosted visitors and a media crew once in February this year to preview the facilities and they were from Russia.
Russian tour companies have been told it will open soon but no further details have been revealed yet.
For those from the UK though a trip there will not be happening anytime soon because North Korea’s borders are closed for us.
Instead, it will serve as a new destination for domestic students and other organised tour groups.
Propaganda authorities have been promoting the resort to domestic audiences.
Kim Jong Un visited the site in 2019 (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)
It is part of Kim Jong Un’s attempts to prioritise people’s living conditions over military spending.
It is likely to be opened with a ceremony promoted in state media, billed primarily as a gift from Kim Jong Un to ordinary North Koreans.
It will then become fully staffed and available to regular and extended foreign tours but where these people will come from remains to be seen.
The project faces questions over whether it will attract foreign visitors considering the secretive nature of the country.
Construction started in 2018 and was due to finish in 2020 but was delayed by the Covid pandemic, NK News reports.
At the nearby airport markings appeared to be repainted and plane parking pads resurfaced.
There could be a spanner in the works though because a nearby waterpark appears to be incomplete.
But other work around the area has started including on a number of large rectangular building foundations — suggestive of apartment or office buildings — but the purpose of the project remains unclear.
Kim last visited the site in April 2019.
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