N. Korea tourism project debuts while domestic hardships mount

By AFP and Global Watch | 2025-07-15

North Korea recently unveiled a sprawling beach resort on its east coast -- an extravagant project launched amid a deepening crisis in the country marked by drug shortages, rising child malnutrition and widespread hunger.

Dubbed "North Korea's Waikiki" by South Korean media, the Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Area can accommodate almost 20,000 visitors, according to Pyongyang, which previously described it as "a world-class cultural resort."

President Kim Jong Un showed a keen interest in developing North Korea's tourism industry during his early years in power, analysts have said, and the coastal resort area was a particular focus.

The tourist zone opened to domestic visitors on July 2, Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency reported, publishing images of tourists in colorful swimsuits enjoying the beach.

Currency over citizens

North Koreans of all ages from across the country flocked to the site "filled with joy at experiencing a new level of civilization," KCNA reported.

The visitors were "astonished by the grandeur and splendor of the tourist city, where more than 400... artistically designed buildings lined the white sandy beach in ideal harmony," it added.

However, beyond the glitzy facade of the new resort, much of the country remains in crisis.

Hospitals report shortages of essential medicines, infant malnutrition is rising and rural clinics often lack electricity or clean water. According to the United Nations (UN), almost 46% of North Korea’s population -- about 11.8 million people --is undernourished.

"The country faces chronic food insecurity due to old infrastructure, capacity gaps in technology and skills, natural disasters, and a lack of investment in addressing those issues," said Elizabeth Salmon, UN special rapporteur on North Korean human rights, in a recent report.

This stark contrast between luxury coastal developments and nationwide humanitarian need underscores North Korea's growing desperation. Isolated from the global economy and heavily reliant on military alliances -- particularly with Russia -- Pyongyang appears to be pursuing tourism as a critical source of foreign currency while neglecting the basic needs of its own people.

According to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, a group of Russian tourists was set to visit the zone in North Korea for the first time on July 7.

South Korea's unification ministry, which manages relations with the North, said the site's operations are "expected to gradually expand," including to Russian tourists.

Kim said in late June that the construction of the site would go down as "one of the greatest successes this year" and that the North would build more large-scale tourist zones "in the shortest time possible."

Previously released images showed him sitting in a chair -- alongside his teenage daughter Ju Ae and wife Ri Sol Ju -- watching a man flying off a water slide in the resort.

Limited tourism

But given the limited capacity of available flights, international tourism to the new beach resort is "likely to remain small in scale," according to Seoul's unification ministry.

"It is estimated that tourists will travel via Pyongyang, and that the number of visitors may be limited to around 170 people per day," the ministry said.

North Korea sees tourism as a key source of foreign currency, it said, and Pyongyang may have received aid to complete the site from Russia in exchange for joining its war in Ukraine.

The nuclear-armed North reopened its borders in August 2023 after almost four years, having closed them because of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which even its own nationals were prevented from entering.

But foreign tourism was limited even before the pandemic, with tour companies saying about 5,000 Western tourists visited each year. Significantly more Chinese tourists were allowed at the time.

The impoverished country's political, military and cultural ties with Russia have deepened since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The North last year permitted Russian tourists to return for the first time since the pandemic and Western tour operators briefly returned in February. No Chinese tourists are known to have returned to the country.

A tourist train between Rason -- home to North Korea's first legal marketplace -- and Vladivostok, Russia, resumed in May, according to an official from Seoul's unification ministry.