After more than six years of delays and global speculation, North Korea has officially opened the Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Area, a sprawling 4-kilometer-long beach resort on the country’s east coast that leader Kim Jong Un hails as a symbol of national pride and economic resilience.
On June 24, Kim, flanked by his wife Ri Sol Ju and daughter Kim Ju Ae, presided over the grand ceremony marking the completion of the long-delayed project. It was Ri’s first public appearance in months and was attended by a rare foreign delegation, including Russian ambassador Alexander Matsegora and staff from the Russian embassy. The resort is set to open to domestic tourists on July 1, although there is no confirmed date for when it will welcome international visitors.
The development is being touted by North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) as a “great, auspicious event of the whole country” and a “prelude to the new era in tourism,” but it remains to be seen whether it will truly transform North Korea’s moribund tourism sector — or simply stand as another showpiece for the regime’s propaganda machine.
The Wonsan Kalma project was first announced with great fanfare in 2018, at a time when Kim Jong Un was engaging in diplomatic overtures with the West and with South Korea. The site, near the city of Wonsan — Kim’s childhood vacation spot — was envisioned as a glitzy, high-end resort that could attract foreign dollars and redefine the international perception of North Korea.
However, construction delays plagued the project from the outset, with work grinding to a halt during the COVID-19 pandemic when the regime sealed its borders and suspended nearly all international travel. KCNA now claims the resort can accommodate up to 20,000 guests, offering hotels, restaurants, malls, and a water park — but these details are unverified, and access by independent media or foreign inspectors is virtually nonexistent.
Satellite imagery of the site analyzed by 38 North, a project of the Stimson Center in Washington D.C., suggests significant progress has been made in recent months, with large hotel complexes now visibly completed. Yet it remains unclear whether the infrastructure meets international standards, or whether North Korea has the logistics in place to manage a high-volume tourist operation.
The resort’s opening, though delayed, comes at a time of growing geopolitical defiance from Pyongyang. With the international community imposing increasingly strict sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear weapons program, the regime has doubled down on self-reliance while quietly seeking economic lifelines through Russia and China.
Wonsan Kalma serves not just as a leisure facility, but as a strategic symbol of national rejuvenation, built on the ashes of its past. Notably, the same beach town once hosted missile test launches that drew international condemnation. Today, the missile pads have been replaced with promenades and pools — a dramatic if theatrical shift in image.
“The optics of this project are deliberate,” says Dr. Hazel Palmer, an expert in Korean politics at the University of Sydney. “Kim Jong Un is telling both his people and the world: ‘We are strong, modern, and independent. Sanctions can’t stop our progress.’ It’s a soft power strategy cloaked in concrete.”
North Korean media emphasizes that the resort will initially cater to domestic tourists, which raises practical questions given the country’s widespread poverty and income disparity. While the official line boasts that the resort is open to all, it is more likely that access will be restricted to the elite, as is often the case with high-profile state projects.
“The idea of 20,000 North Koreans vacationing at a high-end resort on the beach seems detached from economic reality,” says Peter Ward, a Seoul-based researcher focused on North Korean economic policy. “Most people are struggling to afford basic necessities, let alone luxury trips.”
Indeed, North Korea’s GDP per capita remains among the lowest in the world, and much of the country’s economy is informal, driven by small-scale markets rather than state-run enterprises. Analysts argue that Wonsan Kalma is more of a domestic propaganda tool than a true economic initiative.
Before the pandemic, North Korea received around 100,000 foreign tourists annually, the majority from China. With borders now gradually reopening — first to Russians in mid-2024 and briefly to some Western nationals earlier this year — there is speculation that Wonsan could eventually attract international visitors.
However, tour operators are divided on its prospects. Rowan Beard, co-founder of Young Pioneer Tours, which specializes in travel to politically sensitive destinations, says he had hoped the resort’s opening might signal a broader liberalization of tourism.
“But unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case for now,” Beard told reporters. “The country reopened briefly to some Western tourists in February, but halted those visits without explanation just weeks later.”
Beard believes that traditional sites like Pyongyang, the demilitarized zone (DMZ), and other iconic communist-era landmarks will continue to dominate foreign itineraries once tourism fully resumes.
Elliott Davies, director of Uri Tours, offers a more optimistic perspective. “North Korea has a niche appeal,” he says. “For travelers interested in truly unique destinations, a beach resort built under North Korea’s ideological framework could be a fascinating — even surreal — experience.”
The timing of Wonsan Kalma’s launch is no coincidence. North Korea’s relationship with Russia has strengthened dramatically over the past year, culminating in Kim Jong Un’s visit to Russia in September 2024 and mutual pledges of deeper cooperation. Russian tourists are currently the only foreign nationals being allowed into parts of the country, and some analysts believe they may be the first foreigners welcomed at the new resort.
On June 20, North Korea and Russia also restored a direct passenger train service between Pyongyang and Moscow — another sign of growing interdependence as both nations seek to defy Western sanctions and international isolation. The possibility that Wonsan could become a leisure destination for Russian tourists is seen by some as part of this broader alignment.
But beyond shared railways and hospitality facilities, this cooperation has taken a darker turn. Multiple sources, including U.S. and South Korean intelligence agencies, report that North Korean troops have been deployed to assist Russia in its invasion of Ukraine — a deeply controversial and as-yet unverified claim that, if true, would mark a dangerous new chapter in both countries’ foreign policy.
Despite the polished state media photos, glittering hotels, and ribbon-cutting ceremonies, experts caution against viewing Wonsan Kalma as a sign of meaningful reform or economic openness. Instead, they argue it should be understood as a symbolic gesture — a gleaming façade masking persistent internal decay.
In reality, the vast majority of North Koreans remain cut off from the outside world, struggling under chronic food insecurity, a stifling police state, and near-total information control. Humanitarian aid is limited, sanctions are biting, and while Pyongyang invests in showcase projects, basic infrastructure in the countryside remains woefully underdeveloped.
“There’s a tragic irony to it all,” says Dr. Palmer. “On one hand, you have a beachfront paradise being marketed with the trappings of modernity. On the other hand, it’s built in a country where children are starving, dissent is criminalized, and even knowledge of the outside world is punishable.”
The opening of the Wonsan Kalma Beach Resort may be historic in the context of North Korea’s domestic development goals, but whether it will have real economic or diplomatic impact remains uncertain. For Kim Jong Un, it is another opportunity to project stability, modernity, and power to both his citizens and a small circle of international allies.
For the world, however, it raises more questions than it answers: Will it become a genuine tourist destination or a Potemkin village for elites and allies? Will foreign visitors return in meaningful numbers, or will North Korea retreat back into self-imposed isolation? And most importantly — can a beach resort really change the fate of a nation trapped in the world’s most secretive dictatorship?
