Luxury Amid Lamentations

North Korea’s Wonsan-Kalma Resort

North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong Un’s inauguration of the luxurious Wonsan-Kalma resort feels like a scene from a dark satire. Labeled by state media as a beacon of “national treasure-level tourism,” this seaside resort ironically is located in a country crushed by its failing economy, scarce electricity, food shortages and brutal systemic repression.

The resort is a spectacle of glitz and glamour, hiding the harsh reality of a regime desperate for survival and funds. If the contrast were not a tragedy of such massive proportions, it would be laughable.

Kim’s Disneyland

Wonsan-Kalma isn’t a resort; it’s a facade. With high-rise hotels, water parks and accommodations for 20,000 guests, it projects an image of prosperity, luxury and wealth. Yet the gap between this lavish display and the living conditions of the average North Korean could not be wider. Most citizens live in poverty and struggle to provide their families with basic necessities.

Since the average citizen cannot afford this resort, other clients must be found. It appears this is reserved for Pyongyang’s communist cronies and foreign tourists from countries friendly to North Korea. Vostok Intur, a Russian tour agency, is already offering costly pre-packaged tours, tempting uninformed buyers of “exotic” experiences with this fraudulent artificial paradise.

Masking Economic Struggles

This resort is built by a nation that can ill afford it. North Korea’s economy suffers from international sanctions, COVID-19 aftershocks and ongoing mismanagement. Reports from credible sources like the Brookings Institution and NK News highlight how self-imposed isolation, crop failures and declining state revenue have driven the communist regime into what may be its worst economic crisis yet.

Instead of addressing these failures with sound economic policies, Kim Jong Un’s administration builds luxury resorts and expensive warships. It will seek to profit from tourist dollars while the population suffers.

The resort symbolizes a regime that values propaganda over substance. The rural, starving population was promised a materialistic “socialist paradise” that might resemble the new resort. However, the vast majority of North Koreans will never visit Wonsan-Kalma unless they belong to the apparatchik (the communist privileged class) that claims to act in the name of the “people.”

A Cyclical Play of Tourism

North Korea has dabbled in international tourism before. Famous ventures like Mount Kumgang drew millions in the late nineties and provided the government revenue, until the infusion of South Korean investment funds evaporated.

Enthusiasm also waned at Mount Kumgang when a South Korean tourist, Park Wang Ja, was shot and killed by a North Korean soldier after she wandered into a restricted military zone in 2008.

This new “tourism experiment” could see history repeating itself since North Korea remains highly militarized. Behind the bright brochures and fake cultural events at the place, there is always the iron fist of the government, which maintains a maniacal control that consistently undermines its own efforts.

A Pyongyang Puppeteer’s Ambitions

The official government media treats the unveiling of Wonsan-Kalma as yet another triumph for the nation. Kim poured considerable personal and political resources into this project. He visited the site seven times while it was being built. He also insisted upon “world-class standards.”

However, the new resort will also serve a strategic function since it will help cement alliances with friendly nations. By opening the country to select Russian tourists, Pyongyang signals a growing alignment with Moscow. Russian officials might also find a place to rest as they negotiate to obtain yet more North Korean troops to fight in Ukraine.

Hypocrisy Personified

Building hotels, waterparks and wave pools in a country where rice is a luxury is insane. United Nations reports have described life for North Koreans as a “daily struggle devoid of hope.”

Promoting tourism in such a situation is a display of cynical hypocrisy. It seeks to hide the fact that the cause of all this misery is the communist system.

An Invitation for Critical Reflection

Tourism in Wonsan-Kalma offers international visitors only kitsch luxury and scripted smiles while supplying the regime with foreign currency.

Kim’s Disneyland might seem like a strange, even harmless curiosity for an adventurous traveler. It might even tempt a Western liberal to visit. However, patronizing this resort does nothing to help those desperate, despairing people who genuinely need aid and a change of regime.