A beach resort dubbed the ‘North Korean Benidorm’ is set to welcome its first guests, but thousands of its rooms might never be filled.
The resort in Wonsan, at a former missile launch site, got its nickname after Kim Jong-un reportedly sent a fact-finding mission to Spain’s Costa Blanca in 2017.
Work to complete the resort stopped during the pandemic, and homeless people moved into the empty hotel.
Now, after a last push, the resort is expected to open in May next year – becoming one of the largest of its kind on Earth – but its many rooms may never be filled.
North Korea expert Jacob Bogle, who created a comprehensive map of the country from satellite photos, described the sheer scale of the development.
He said: ‘The Wonsan resort is the largest recreational complex in North Korea and is one of the largest single-operator beach resorts in the world in terms of length.
‘Initial plans released back in 2013 suggested that the resort could accommodate as many as 100,000 visitors at a time. Considering that only 150,000 to 200,000 foreign tourists visited the country annually pre-Covid, Wonsan would be heavily reliant on domestic tourism to reach capacity.’
Though North Korea does have ‘moderate’ tourism domestically, Wonsan is thought to have been built to appeal to foreign tourists.
He added: ‘Should it finally open in 2025, Russian and Chinese tourists would make up the bulk of international visitors to Wonsan.’
It was a point echoed by Martyn Williams, a senior fellow with the Stimson Center in Washington DC, who authored a recent update on the Wonsan resort.
He said: ‘The hotels across the resort probably have thousands of rooms in total.
It could be for North Korean residents but the expectation is that this will be for foreign tourists.
‘North Korea has reopened to Russian tourists and many expect Chinese to be next on the list, before western tourists. In fact, Russians have already been shown around the construction as part of a recent tour.’
Mr Williams said it was ‘unclear’ whether visitors from Britain and America would ever be welcomed there.
He said: ‘There could be a day when western tourists are offered trips here, including those from the UK and US. Although the US State Department has its own restrictions on US passport holders visiting North Korea.
‘It’s very unlikely that South Korean or US tourists will be allowed to visit in the foreseeable future.’
When Kim Jong-un visited the resort in July, regime propagandists only published photos of the hotels’ exteriors.
Mr Bogle said: ‘North Korea’s inability to finish the interiors – either because they can’t import what they need or because they’ve simply redirected funds elsewhere – has been a major impediment to the resort’s opening.’
What’s more, the infrastructure might not be ready – even if there are enough guests to fill the resort.
In any case, experts agree that the regime will likely meet the new opening date.
‘They can build very fast and usually do,’ said Mr Williams.
‘Kim Jong-un has built several new districts of apartment buildings in Pyongyang in the last few years and is opening lots of new housing around the country. Speed is helped by using military construction crews.’
Mr Bogle added: ‘It’s not an improbable timeline, but with the resort sitting unoccupied for so long, they may also have to make repairs before fully opening the complex.’
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