After recently opening, North Korea blocks foreign tourism to 'world-class' resort area

In a sudden move, North Korea has barred foreign tourists from its recently unveiled Wonsan-Kalma Coastal Tourist Area — just weeks after hailing it as a world-class getaway. 

The state-run tourism website DPR Korea Tour announced Wednesday that foreign visitors are “temporarily not accepted” at the Wonsan-Kalma zone. The regime had spent years developing the site, centered on a “ten-ri-long white sand beach” along the Kalma Peninsula in Kangwon Province, with the goal of opening it by April 15, 2019, to mark the birthday of national founder Kim Il Sung. But international sanctions and the Covid-19 pandemic derailed the timeline, and the resort only held its official opening on June 24. 

State media at the time said services for domestic tourists would begin July 1 but offered no explanation for the abrupt U-turn on foreign guests.

The Wonsan-Kalma zone had recently drawn Russian tourists, and a Russian travel agency reportedly has two more tours booked for August, according to the BBC. 

Kim Jong-un’s decision to host Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the resort on July 12 — rather than in Pyongyang — was widely seen as an effort to spotlight the site. Kim even told Lavrov he was the “first foreign guest” since the resort’s opening, according to a Russian Foreign Ministry transcript, a remark that doubled as informal publicity. 

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova heaped praise on the Wonsan-Kalma resort in an interview with Sputnik Radio this week, calling it a “fantastic holiday destination” with “perfectly equipped facilities.”

Yet behind the glossy facade, cracks may be showing. Analysts suggest Pyongyang’s sudden ban may reflect disappointing foreign demand or worries over exposing the country’s realities to outsiders. A Russian journalist who visited the site alongside Lavrov reported that the polished scenes shown on state media were staged using mobilized local residents. 

A one-week trip to North Korea that includes three days in the Wonsan-Kalma zone costs around $1,800, according to the BBC, a price range about 60 percent higher than the average monthly wage for Russian workers. 

BY BAE JAE-SUNG [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]