Posted on 06/27/2025 8:27:21 AM PDT by Red Badger
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.
With foreign tourists still largely banned—only select Russian visitors are tentatively scheduled starting July 7, according to AP.
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.
The news outlet added:
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.
Reports of the exact scale vary from about 7,000 to 20,000 rooms, which could make the resort — called Wonsan Kalma —one of the largest single-entity-owned beach resorts on the planet.
“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.
The dream for Kim: a world-class megatourism project displaying his totalitarian power to the world and at home, and a way to make money.
The question is who, exactly, will flock there.
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Just where I want to go..
So he Un-opens it?
Trump wannabe.
A real treat for the tourists will be the daily execution of dissidents. You’ll never know what sort of new and unique method of murder he’ll come up with next!..................
mamadin(SP) NYC can’t-i-date for mare might like to visit. Surely he’s a fan boy of kill jung dung.
The menus at the restaurants will feature such mouthwatering dishes as: Capitalist Dog ala Kim, Korean Cat ala Il Sung, and everybody’s favorite, Dissident Liver with Fava Beans!..................YUM!..............
Or it’s the result of conversations with Trump. The Donald loves to lead with suggesting development projects.
If it’s true, I am betting that this is Trumps idea. Quiet back channel communications. You can be known as a brutal tyrant dictator, OR you can be seen as a transformative figure. Do you want to fire missiles around or do you want to really do something good?
Daddy says, MNKGA?! lol
Democrats gonna hate that.
Bernie Sanders will be the first honored guest...................
Hahaha! NK taking a page out of PDJT’s playbook...
Sounds like another North Korean Potemkin village. A few years ago, I read a book by a British visitor to NK who described seeing universities with no students, wide, tree-lined boulevards in the capital with no cars, and waterfalls up in the mountains that can be turned on and off.
Just where I want to go..
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Me, too. I can’t wait....NOT.
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But whatever you do as a visitor, don’t touch any portraits!!! /Obscure
Yep, it can get you more that just a brief stay.............
But it turns out that the village is empty...it's just a Hollywood set. I bet this new "resort" is just the same.
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