North Korea shows off giant beach resort built on former missile testing site that can house 100,000 visitors
North Korea is transforming a former missile testing site into a beachfront 'tourist city.'
The country has built a resort complex with a 5-kilometre beach and 150 hotels on the Kalma Peninsula near the city of Wonsan on the east coast. And it's set to open this year.
It's considered to be a major step forward for North Korea's tourism industry.
But what's unique about this site is that it was previously used as a missile testing site.
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State media recently shared photos of leader Kim Jong Un touring the facilities with his daughter, Kim Ju Ae.
"The construction of the Kalma coastal tourist area is the first big step of great significance in putting the national tourist industry on a track of epochal development," the leader was quoted.
US-based North Korea expert Jacob Bogle said the development is likely to be the largest single-owner resort complex in the world and compared it to that of the Benidorm area of Spain's Costa Blanca.
"But Benidorm is a collection of different resorts and hotels owned by different companies built up over years and years," he added.
"Wonsan is one single, giant complex and, as far as I'm aware, there aren't any other single-owner beach resorts on this scale."
Bogle has developed a comprehensive map of North Korea and claimed there would also be an aquarium and sports facilities at the resort - enough to keep everyone busy.
"You would be able to do just about anything [at the resort] that you could elsewhere, you're just not really going to be able to leave," he said.
Alexander Hynd, a lecturer at the University of Melbourne's Asia Institute, explained that the project was a way to host foreign tourists and obtain foreign currency.
"My sense is that the primary target market will be North Korea's neighbours to the north, predominantly Russia and China, but North Korea also has a modest domestic tourism industry," Dr. Hynd said.
While the resort promises luxury, tourism in North Korea remains highly controlled. Visitors are typically restricted to guided group tours, and it seems the same rules will apply here.
Bogle confirmed: "Once you're there, you're there for your trip."
The Wonsan-Kalma project began in 2014 and was initially scheduled to open in 2019 but the pandemic put the whole thing on hold.
At one point, the half-built site was reportedly taken over by 'kkotjebi' - a Korean term for homeless people.
But things have returned to normal and construction resumed last year, with the resort now expected to open in June 2025.