North Korea opened a large resort on its east coast, the state media reported on Wednesday. The Wonsan Kalma coastal tourist tourist area is expected to call Pyongyang a “first -class cultural resort” will welcome Russian tourists at the end of this month. The South Korean media nicknamed “North Korea’s Waikiki”. According to the North Korean authorities, the website can host nearly 20,000 visitors.
Experts say that leader Kim Jong Un showed a strong interest in strengthening tourism in his early years, while the coastal resort is one of his key projects.
The tourist zone was opened to home visitors on Tuesday, reported the official Korean central news agency Pyongyang and published pictures of tourists in color swimsuits that enjoy the beach.
The North Koreans of all ages from all over the country threw themselves into a place “full of joy in the life of a new level of civilization”, Kcna said.
Visitors were “amazed by the grandeur and splendor of the tourist town, where more than 400 … The artistically designed buildings were lined with a white sandy beach in ideal harmony,” he added.
According to Yonhap South Korea, a group of Russian tourists are ready to visit the zone in North Korea for the first time on July 7.
The Ministry of Unification of South Korea, which manages relations with North, said that the operation of the website “is expected to gradually expand”, including Russian tourists.
Kim said last week that the construction of the website would decrease as “one of the greatest successes this year” and that it would build more large hiking zones to the north in the shortest possible time.
Previously released pictures showed him that he was sitting on a chair – next to his teenage daughter Ju Ae and his wife Ri Sol Ju – watched a man flying from a water slip in the resort.
But due to the limited capacity of available flights, international tourism to the new beach resort “, according to the Ministry of Unification of Soul Unification” probably stay on a scale “.
“It is estimated that tourists travel through Pyongyang and that the number of visitors can be limited to approximately 170 people a day,” the ministry said.
North Korea considers tourism as a key source of foreign currency, he said, and Pyongyang may have received assistance to complete the place from Russia in exchange for joining his war in Ukraine.
North-armed north reopened its borders in August 2023 after almost four years, when it closed them due to the Covid-19 pandemic, during which its own nationals were prevented.
However, foreign tourism was limited before the pandemic, with tourist companies presenting around 5,000 Western tourists each year. At that time, significantly more Chinese tourists were allowed.
Damaged political, military and cultural ties with Russia deepened from the invasion of Moscow in 2022.
Last year, the north allowed Russian tourists to return for the first time since pandemic and western tour operators returned briefly in February this year. It is not known that no Chinese tourists have returned to the country.
According to the official of the Ministry of Soul Unification, this year the tourist train continued between racos – home of the first legal market of North Korea – and Russian Vladivostok continued in May this year.
American citizens accounted for about 20 percent of the market before Washington banned traveling after imprisonment and subsequent death of American student Otto Warmbier.
Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans also attended Mount Kumgang near the inter -border every year and traveled to the tourist resort funded in Seoul, which was the first major project of cooperation between neighbors.
At the end of 2008, when the North Korean soldier shot a dead South Korean tourist, who turned the approved journey and Soul suspended travel.
(With AFP press agency inputs)
(Tagstotranslate) North Korea
