North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the launch of plans for a new seaside tourist resort, state media said on Tuesday, a “first major step” toward a potentially wider border reopening. The isolated north reopened its borders in August 2023 after nearly four years of border closures, imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic that barred even its own citizens from entering.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim stressed that the resort, part of the existing Wonsan-Kalma development project in the east, is a “first major step” in tourism development.
According to KCNA, Kim visited the resort with her daughter Kim Ju Ae and “glad their eyes with bright smiles”.
Photos released by KCNA showed Kim and her daughter walking on the beach and visiting an otherwise deserted hotel development.
He expressed “great satisfaction” that the facilities have been constructed “so that they can be used to successfully host important external, political and cultural events of the kingdom”, KCNA said.
Kim was quoted as saying, “If the tourism industry is developed by making active use of such favorable conditions and environment, it will open up a new field of socialist cultural construction and another way to promote regional rejuvenation and national economic development.” Will bring driving force.” ,
Analysts have said that Kim showed a keen interest in developing North Korea’s tourism industry in his early years in power, with the Wonsan-Kalma development considered one of his favorite projects.
A group of about 100 Russian tourists arrived in Pyongyang in February, the first known foreign tourist group to visit after border restrictions were lifted, and went to a ski resort near Wonsan.
Nuclear-armed North Korea has deepened political, military and cultural ties with Russia since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Before the pandemic, tourism in the north was limited, with tour companies saying about 5,000 Western tourists visited annually.
American citizens made up about 20 percent of the market before Washington imposed a travel ban following the imprisonment and subsequent death of American student Otto Warmbier.
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