Featured Image Credit: KNCA / KIM WON JIN/AFP via Getty Images
Topics: Travel, World News
Faima Bakar
Looking for your next getaway? Why not add North Korea to the bucket list?
You might be able to make it happen sooner than you think, with this lavish new resort opening up.
The country's supreme leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a mammoth new resort on North Korea's east coast, which can accommodate up to 20,000 guests, and who knows, in the future, you could be one of them.
The Wonson Kalma coastal resort was opened for one unexpected reason: tourism. The North Korean despot's new pet project is aiming to make the area a tourism success, with Pyongyang calling it a 'world-class cultural resort'.
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Before the braver among you start grabbing your passport and heading to Skyscanner, you should know it's only open to domestic and Russian travellers at the moment. Naturally.
The Wonson Kalma resort opened to much fanfare last month, like an opening Olympic ceremony, attended by Kim Jong-un, his wife Ri Sol-ju, their daughter Kim Ju-ae, and Russia’s ambassador to North Korea.
The resort has now begun to welcome its first guests, who were pictured smiling pretty convincingly as they splashed around on the beach and the pool.
Oh, and Kim Jong-un was also sat across the pool, watching them enjoy some state-sanctioned fun.
So, no pressure on the guests or anything.
The lavish new destination also seems to boast a waterpark, a beach strip, bikes (and tandem options) for hire, golf buggies to get around and state-of-the-art tech.
Pictures released by state media also show the resort to be family-friendly, with parents, children and elderly guests enjoying the services available.
North Korean media considered the whole affair 'one of the greatest successes this year' and the state is hopeful it will put the coastal area on the map for tourism in the future.
But given the ban on international travel, it doesn't look set to open to other travellers, besides Russian tour groups, any time soon.
Since the pandemic, the controversial nation has had incredibly strict borders, not letting many travellers in, and much of its tourism revenue has come from political alliances.
Before Covid-19 lockdowns, the country saw mostly Chinese tourists, which has since cooled down as political relations between China have become frail in the last few years. But Russian tourists were welcome, and the first batch arrived last year amid the growing military relationship between the new nations, according to ABC News.
Two military superpowers buddying up and holidaying together. What could go wrong?