Wonsan, June 26, 2025 – It was a spectacle straight out of a postmodern dystopia: North Korea’s ruler Kim Jong-un, accompanied by his wife Ri Sol Ju and daughter Ju Ae, ceremoniously cut the red ribbon on Tuesday – opening a gigantic tourist resort that has no tourists. Featuring water parks, hotels, colorful slides and a five-kilometer-long beach, the Wonsan-Kalma Resort is meant to crown Kim Jong-un’s collection of prestige projects. Except: no one is coming. For years, Kim has dreamed of putting North Korea on the global travel map – a place where people don’t just launch rockets but sip cocktails. Now, after endless construction delays, he has realized his dream. Almost. Although the resort has space for 20,000 guests, it remains off-limits to foreign visitors. North Korea has no regular visa or flight policies for individual tourists – and for good reason: the world is meant to stay out while the regime celebrates itself inside.
And so the opening was above all a show for the cameras: Kim, seated in a suit by the pool, watched with visible satisfaction as a party official rocketed down a waterslide. The setting: turquoise water, neatly planted palm trees, hotels in pastel colors – the tropical dream of a country that has never known real travel freedom. According to KCNA, the resort is a “world-class cultural resort” equipped with bathing facilities, sports halls and the promise to “offer the beauty of the East Coast in all seasons.” In truth, the resort sits on the grounds of a former missile testing site – a place long associated with fear and international concern. Today, jet skis are supposed to roar instead of rockets, mass dances instead of test explosions. But the parallels remain. The obsession with control, the staging, the pathos. In his opening speech, Kim announced plans to “build more large-scale tourism projects in the shortest time possible.” With “great satisfaction,” he praised the construction progress and declared the resort to be “one of the greatest successes of the year.” It was not a project for tourists – but above all for his own ego.
His daughter Ju Ae, who is increasingly appearing publicly at his side, wore a Cartier watch – a symbol of luxury that is officially banned in North Korea. Watches of this kind are subject to UN sanctions, but in Pyongyang, as is well known, different rules apply. A small number of Russian tourists were allowed to return this year – a geopolitical friendship the regime treasures like a rare jewel. A direct train now runs again between Moscow and Pyongyang, and a route from Rason to Vladivostok was reopened in May. Western tourists, however, remain an exception – around 5,000 per year before the pandemic. Since then, the country has returned to isolation. What remains is a bizarre place on the East Coast of a country that for years didn’t even allow its own citizens to enter – and now wants to step into the future with swim trunks and a national anthem. A place where the illusion of normalcy roars as loudly as the water cannons in the aqua park – and yet cannot conceal the truth: that this is not about relaxation, but about control, demonstration of power and a dictator who has built himself a monument by the sea. Welcome to Wonsan. Where you can have the beach all to yourself – because no one else is allowed to come.
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