Kim Jong Un is building a tourist empire in North Korea. There is no certainty who will fill them

For Kim it is more than just an investment, it is a show of the strength of his regime, addressed to both the outside world and the internal audience. By the way, he is also to bring motto. Only who would come there?

The North Korean embassy in London did not answer our questions.

Modest tourist exchange

The construction was announced in 2014, but the project was constantly delayed. When in 2019 the deadline was postponed for the first time, who explained it with concern for quality. Analysts suspected that the real reason was sanctions that hindered access to import materials.

Covid-19 Pandemia has completely stopped work. According to current declarations, the resort is to be opened in June – Which may mean that North Korea has been closed so far will allow foreign tourists again.

In February, the country allowed the entry of a small group of visitors, after which the borders were closed again. The tourism industry holds his breath.

Rowan Beard, co -founder of the Young Pioneer Tours office, which organized the mentioned journey, says that he has not seen the complex in Wonsan yet. What he heard about him is impressive.

– There were a lot of impressive facilities, not only for tourists. The resort is also to be ready to receive foreign delegations – he says. – There are special rooms for officials and presidential apartments – he adds.

– This is a huge investment. Virtually the whole city – he adds. “As if someone decided to build Australian Gold Coast from scratch,” he explains.

In 2014, the state media announced that a complex with an area of ​​approx. 1,400 ha will accommodate Underwater hotel, flower garden, international conference center, market halls and various hotels, apartments and apartments – adapted to each pocket.

The region itself has been attracting North Korean tourists for years. Nearby, in Songdddon, an international camp for children operate, and about 20 km away there is a Masikrong ski resort.

Kim – who spent part of his childhood here and has a private residence nearby – he often praised the beauty of the region. At least, that's what the regime controlled the press.

– Wonsan is the equivalent of Mar-a-Lago for Kim Jong Una – Michael Madden, the creator of the NK Leadership Watch, said in 2015, in an interview with the Reuters agency.

See also: Five minutes in North Korea. I went to the most guarded border of the world

Mass tourism? Rather niche

In recent years, some objects in the resort have appeared and disappeared. As noted by the South Korean company Si Analytics, a mysterious turtle -shaped building can be an aquarium. The theater built in 2021 was already demolished.

In recent weeks, Si Analytics has observed an increased traffic of tankers in a nearby port. It is possible that this is a nervous attempt to complete the investment before the planned opening.

Beard admits that his North Korean partners hope that he will bring the first tourists to Wonsan. – They expect crowds – says.

He warns them, however, that interest may disappoint them. He estimates that he will be able to attract only about 100 people a year.

“Places where your mother would prefer you not to go”

The problem is essential – Young Pioneer Tours customers are usually amateurs of exotic and risk. They are attracted by the company's slogan: “Places where your mother would prefer not to go.”

Experts with whom Business Insider talked, doubt whether the complex will actually attract crowds of foreign tourists. The place is beautiful, but as Bruce W. Bennett from Rand Corporation put it: “It's not Florida. It's North Korea.”

– It is not even known whether this investment will pay back, taking into account how much it has been put into it – comments Marcus Noland, North Korea specialist and Vice President of the Washington Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Pyongyang does not reveal how much he spends on his projects, but in 2019 Kim admitted that “huge resources and labor force” was involved in the construction of Wonsan Kalma. Although the use of forced labor could reduce the costs, Similar investments in other parts of the world require expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars.

As experts note, the complex can be divided into zones for Koreans and foreigners to limit the residents in contact with knowledge about the outside world.

“Who is afraid that information from outside will reach his citizens,” says Bennett.

Such separation, combined with a lack of experience of North Korea in the service of tourists, can make rest there is very “peculiar”.

– Tourists will live in a bubble – adds Beard.

Rescue in rubles?

Foreign tourism is tempting because it allows you to obtain cash bypassing international sanctions. Koreans from the South seem an ideal customer. Due to the closeness and purchasing power. The problem is that political tensions will effectively discourage them.

– Commercially speaking, South Korea should be the main market. Politically, however, the regime wants to keep Seoul at a distance – notes Noland.

The Japanese, Chinese and the Russians can be more likely guests, especially in the light of the closer military cooperation between both countries.

The Russian travel agency Vostok Intur from Vladivostok began to advertise trips to Wonsan Kalma in January. All inclusive holidays, whose start is scheduled for July, cost about PLN 1,580, plus an additional approx. PLN 5270 per person (probably this is a fee for Pyongyang).

In the autumn of last year, the Russian ambassador to North Korea, Aleksandr Macegora, praised North Korean hospitality after the Wonsan region accepted wounded Russian soldiers.

Despite this, as Bennett notes, it is still unknown whether the Russians' interest will be enough to breathe life into such a huge object.

– I don't think the Russians go to Kalma crowded – says Beard. – They, like the rest of the world, prefer Pattaya in Thailand, Goa in India or Dubai – he adds.

Domestic potential and … Trump?

It cannot be ruled out that some of the guests will be the Koreans themselves. Experts predict that the state will send employees there as a reward for exemplary achievements.

Beard believes that local residents will accept it with enthusiasm.

“They'll think:” Hey, we have our own Disneyland, “he says.

However, Wonsan Kalma can also perform a propaganda and diplomatic function. Kim Dzong Un still seeking North Korea as a nuclear power.

In 2018, Donald Trump encouraged Pyongyang to develop his “wonderful beaches”. Although it is hard to imagine that the USA will start sending tourists there in the near future, joint talks about real estate may – as Ellen Kim suggests – to be a starting point for further negotiations.

What if the project shares the fate of the unfortunate Hotel Wujugjg in Pyongyang?

An unfinished skyscraper, called by foreign media “Hotel of the Holocaust”, has not been opened to this day. Although it was the highest building in the country, erected since the 1980s on the initiative of Kim Ir Sen, he never accepted a single guest.

– Kim Jong Un always wanted to show that he is more modern, more “on time” than his father or grandfather – says Noland.

Perhaps in Wonsan Kalma he sees his greatest chance to prove it.

– I think he really cares for North Korea to look like an ambitions – sums up Bennett.

The above article comes from American Business Insider edition