CNN: North Korea just opened a beach resort for 20,000 people, who will visit?

Kim Jong Un personally cut off the tape on a new resort that state media described as a subx0 tourist town at the national treasure level” a luxury sea-side development in the face of what human rights observers describe as grim realities and difficulties throughout North Korea.

According to the country's official KCNA news agency, Kim opened the wide coastal resort Kalma with water parks, multistory hotels and accommodation for nearly 20,000 visitors to a wide extravagance show in one of the world's most isolated nations, writes CNN.

The Jinsan-Calma coastal resort, discovered at a ceremony on 24 June, is located on the eastern coast of North Korea. The KCNA reported that <x0 use for local guests will begin on July 1st”, but did not elaborate on selection or transport.

Earlier this month, North Korea announced the opening of the Kalma railway station, reporting that it was built to provide a high level of comfort for travelers to the coastal tourist area”. The Kalma beach resort is near an international airport, another indicator that the project aims to attract foreign currency.

International participation in the strip cut was limited only to the Russian ambassador and his staff, an indication of the growing draw-up of mature with Moscow in terms of deepening Western isolation under Kim's authoritarian regime.

In 2024, the UN's human rights chief, Volker Turk, described North Korea under Kim's rule as “a drowning and claustrophobic environment, where life is a daily struggle without hope”.

Last year, small groups of Russian tourists visited North Korea for three-day snow break at the Maskiryong resort, which has been a tourist attraction since its opening in December 2013. These, like all tourist experiences in North Korea, were strictly supervised and controlled by the government.

Tourists who returned told CNN that they submitted to strict rules about what they could and could not photograph and that they were asked to attend a choreographed dance performance by North Korean children in addition to nature activities.

“Wonsan-Calma is open only to North Koreans right now, but it shouldn't surprise us if we look at the Russians at the resort in the near future”, Rachel Minyoung Lee, foreign associate on programme 38 North by Stimson Center.

“Largely, the opening of a major beach resort like Wonsan-Calma helps strengthen the state media's framework for the policy of Kim focused on the people and helps balance its greater focus on building national defence”, Lee added.

In a country where international tourism has been open mainly to Russian citizens since the end of the COVIID-19 pandemic, and where internal travel is strictly limited, new development raises known questions about access, audiences and economic feasibility.

The initial target for this resort will be the privileged internal elite of genean, such as party officials and other high figures” said Lim Eul-chul, professor of North Korea Studies at the Kyungnam University in South Korea.

“Cermonia of Wonsan-Calma resort reflects Kim Jong Un's vision of socialist evolution and is part of his strategic effort to seek economic progress through the tourism industry”.

The most prominent experiment in North Korea with international tourism occurred in the late 1990s, when it opened the picturesque area of Mount Kumgang on the southeastern coast for visitors from South Korea.

The project was described as a rare symbol of interstate commitment during a period of careful proximity.

But the initiative was unexpectedly interrupted in 2008, after a North Korean soldier shot death at a South Korean tourist who reportedly had emerged in a restricted military zone an incident that highlighted the fragility of cross-border co-operation and caused Seoul to suspend travel indefinitely./Periscopi/