Noord -Korea has a new luxury beach resort. But the country is not open to most tourists

Seoul, South Korea -When President Trump met the leader of Noord -Korea Kim Jong Un for a historic top in 2018, he tried to show a rosy future North Korea.

“As an example they have great beaches. You see that when they explode their guns in the ocean,” Trump said reporters. “I said, you know, instead of doing that, you could have the best hotels in the world there.”

The nuclear negotiations between Trump and Kim fell apart, but a version of the imagination of Trump has become reality. This week a smashing resort opened in the city of Wonsan on the eastern sea coast of Noord -Korea.

The Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Area extends over the 2.5-mile beach of the Kalma peninsula. The coast is covered with around 400 buildings, including high-rise hotels and villas that, according to the North Korean state media, can offer around 20,000 guests. The zone also has cultural and commercial facilities such as a water park, gym, concert hall, restaurant, car shop, carwash, beer room and department store.

Analysts say that the opening of this luxury resort shows that Pyongyang pursues both economic prosperity and – not instead of – military ambitions and withdrawn dictatorship.

“A world destination”

Noord -Korea tested rockets in the same city of Wonsan as recently as in May. Although Kim Jong Un said he wants it to be a ‘world destination’, there is no indication that the resort will be open to most foreign tourists.

Since his early years as a leader, Kim has insisted on tourism as a means to stimulate the economy of his country-based economy, because tourism is one of the few remaining legitimate sources of income from foreign currency for North Korea. He also wants industry to encourage growth in remote regions that are far behind at the capital Pyongyang.

But the constant military progress and the deepening of North Korea have tempered this drive.

Even as a tent project, the Kalma Tourism Zone lasted almost ten years to build in the midst of international sanctions and Pandemic Lockdown. After it was broken in 2016, the first deadline of 2018 was delayed several times.

The resort began to receive domestic tourists on Tuesday, but it is unclear whether they will be the kind of economic stimulating agents that the regime hopes for. Noord -Korea limited freedom of movement and suffers from persistent economic hardships, with around 60% of North Koreans estimated To be in poverty.

The country has still been reluctant to allow foreign tourists. Earlier this year, Noord -Korea let a group of Western tourists enter for the first time since it closed its borders during the start of the Covid Pandemie in 2020, to stop abruptly after three weeks without explaining why.

Tourist groups from China, who formed most foreign travelers who visited pre-Pandemic in North Korea, still have to return.

Will Russians come?

The only exception to the tourist break is Russians, with whom Noord -Korea has quickly increased the exchanges and cooperation since the two countries signed a mutual defense agreement in 2024.

Russians will probably also be the first foreign visitors to the new resort. Noord -Korea invited the Russian ambassador Aleksandr Matsegora as a special guest for last week’s ceremony in honor of the completion of the resort. Russian press agency Tass reported Last week the first series of Russian tourists will leave for Kalma next week.

But fewer than 900 Russians traveled to Noord -Korea for leisure time in 2024, according to Russian customs data, compared to hundreds of thousands of Chinese tourists who once visited the country every year.

Researcher Lee Sangkeun from the Seoul-based Government Think Tank Institute for National Security Strategy notes Travelers from large Russian cities would not find Noord -Korea an attractive destination worth worth the long journey and heavy limitations and supervision of foreign visitors.

Lee also points to the poor infrastructure of North Korea and vulnerability for geopolitical fluctuations as reasons to be skeptical about his tourist ambitions.

During last week’s ceremony, however, Kim Jong Un praised the “diverse and rich tourist resources and unique political stability and institutional sustainability” of his country. He promised to build extra large tourist resorts “based on the success and the experiences gained in the development of Kalma.”