North Korea's Benidorm-style resort welcomes first Russian tourists
Echoes of Benidorm
Kim Jong Un spent much of his youth in Wonsan, and prior to the building of the new resort the town was a popular holiday destination for the country's elite.
"When the Wonsan tourist area was initially planned… the idea was to attract around one million tourists to the area while keeping it a closed-off zone," says Ri Jong Ho, a senior North Korean economic official involved in the resort's early planning stages and who defected in 2014."The intention was to open North Korea up a bit."In 2017, a year before construction began, Kim sent a delegation on a fact-finding mission to Spain, where the team toured the resort of Benidorm.The North Korean delegation "included high ranking politicians and many architects who took lots of notes," recalls Matias Perez Such, a member of the Spanish team that hosted the delegation on a tour including a theme park, high-rise hotels and a marina.A North Korean brochure with a map of the resort has 43 hotels identified along the beach front, as well as guest houses on an artificial lake, and camping sites. We've matched these locations with high-resolution satellite imagery, although we are unable to verify whether they have actually been completed.
An aquatic park, complete with towering yellow water slides, is set back from the beach.Further north, there's an entertainment quarter which includes buildings that are identified in the plan as a theatre, recreation and fitness centres, and a cinema.
Beginning in early 2018, satellite images taken over 18 months reveal dozens of buildings springing up along the 4km (2.5 mile) stretch of coastline.By the end of 2018, around 80% of the resort had been completed, according to research carried out by satellite imagery firm, SI Analytics, based in South Korea.However, following this whirlwind construction effort, work on the site then appears to have paused.
Construction then resumed after a June 2024 meeting with Kim and Vladimir Putin, where the Russian president said he would encourage his citizens to visit North Korea's holiday resorts.
The human cost of construction
This rapid pace of construction has raised concerns over the treatment of those working at the site.The UN has highlighted a system of forced labour used in North Korea, in particular "shock brigades" where workers often face harsh conditions, long hours, and inadequate compensation.James Heenan of the UN Human Rights Office in Seoul says "there are reports that the resort was built using what they call shock brigades"."We've also seen reports that people were working 24 hours at the end to get this thing finished, which sounds like a shock brigade to me."
The BBC has spoken to one North Korean who served in and eventually managed shock brigades.Although Cho Chung Hui - who has subsequently defected - wasn't involved in the construction of the Wonsan resort, he recalled the brutal conditions of the brigades he oversaw."The principle behind these [brigades] was that no matter what, you had to complete the task, even if it cost you your life," he said."I saw many women who were under so much physical strain and eating so poorly that their periods stopped altogether."
Kang Gyuri, who worked in Wonsan before fleeing to South Korea in 2023, says her cousin volunteered to work on the construction site because he saw it as a pathway to residency in the country's capital of Pyongyang, which is reserved for citizens trusted by the regime."He could hardly sleep. They [didn't] give him enough to eat," she said."The facilities are not properly organised, some people just die while working and they [the authorities] don't take responsibility if they fall and die."Ms Kang also said residents in Wonsan were driven out from their homes as the resort project expanded, often without compensation.Though not specific to Ms Kang's experience, BBC Verify was able to identify through satellite analysis the demolition of buildings near a main road leading towards the resort. In their place, larger tower blocks are now visible.
"They just demolish everything and build something new, especially if it's in a good location," Ms Kang said."The problem is, no matter how unfair it feels, people can't openly speak out or protest."The BBC reached out to North Korean officials for comment.
Where are the foreign tourists?
North Korea has been almost entirely closed to foreign visitors with only a few highly-controlled tours permitted to visit the country in recent years.Wonsan Kalma is seen not only as playing an important role in reviving the sanctioned country's ailing economic fortunes, but also as a means of strengthening its ties with Russia - which have grown closer following Pyongyang's military support for Moscow's war in Ukraine.According to early planning documents seen by BBC Verify, the initial goal was to attract more than a million visitors, with foreign tourists expected to mainly come from China and Russia.
We have scanned tourist agency sites both in China and Russia for any listings promoting trips to the new resort.None of the Chinese agencies we checked were advertising trips to Wonsan. In Russia, however, we identified three agencies offering tours that included Wonsan Kalma.We called one of the Russian agencies in early July posing as an interested customer a week before its first scheduled departure on 7 July and were told that it had attracted 12 people from Russia.The week-long trip to North Korea, including three days at the Wonsan resort, cost $1,800 (£1,300) - that's 60% more than the average monthly salary in Russia.Two further trips have been scheduled for August, according to this tour operator.
We contacted the other two agencies offering similar tour packages, but they declined to disclose how many people had signed up.Andrei Lankov, an expert in Russian-North Korean relations at the Kookmin University in Seoul, said Wonsan Kalma was "highly unlikely to become seriously popular with Russian visitors"."Russian tourists can easily go to places like Turkey, Egypt, Thailand and Vietnam, which are far superior to everything North Korea can develop," he said."The standards of service are higher and you are not put under constant supervision."Additional reporting by Yaroslava Kiryukhina, Yi Ma and Cristina Cuevas. Graphics by Sally Nicholls and Erwan Rivault.
What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
What it was like to live as a diplomat in North Korea
Before North Korea closed its borders during the pandemic, Western visitors to the hermit kingdom were mostly forced to explore the country in highly regimented tour groups. Always under the watchful eye of their Korean minders, opportunities for genuine interaction with locals were scarce. But one group of foreigners is allowed to roam Pyongyang, the capital, more or less as they wish: the diplomats. Speaking to The Telegraph, they described how it was to live a life of relative freedom in one of the strangest and most repressive corners of the world. Firstly, the fact that North Korea is under heavy sanctions poses serious logistical challenges. For one, it is impossible to withdraw or send money to the country, which means embassy staff have to fly to China and bring back bags stuffed with cash to fund their missions. 'Every month, I or one of my staff would take the plane to Beijing, pick up 30 or 40,000 euros in cash, and bring it back,' said Mike Gifford, who served as the British ambassador to North Korea from 2012 to 2015. 'It was slightly surreal – you'll be at the airport and you'll see the German third secretary and he's got a trolley case with a little tag saying German government, but this is what we all did because there was no other way.' Finding staple products on the shopping run was also not a simple undertaking. 'We spent a lot of our spare time shopping, not because there is a vibrant shopping scene, but because you had to,' said Mr Gifford. There were only a few supermarkets that catered to foreigners, but 'the range of goods was not fantastic', he said. 'They would occasionally have whole chiller cabinets full of Perrier water and that's great, but I don't always want Perrier water,' Mr Gifford added. Pyongyang has a decent amount of bars, cafés and restaurants – including an Italian pizza place and a Viennese coffee shop – but making friends with locals was not easy. Lindsey Miller, who spent two years in Pyongyang as the spouse of a British diplomat, said they would always be seated away from Koreans at the bars. She managed to strike up a friendship with a young woman who ran a bar not far from the embassy compound, but it wasn't easy. 'It's something I wrestled with the whole time I was there. How can you really get to know people? How can you really get to know what they think when you can't really ask them?' asked Ms Miller. The woman she befriended had spent time outside the country and could speak English, but the extent to which she could share details about her life was limited. Keeping in touch with friends back home in Britain and Europe was also challenging. While the Munsu-dong diplomatic compound in the east of the capital – where most of them were based – was one of the few places in the entire country to have WiFi, it was very slow. 'You could answer emails and you could send Facebook messages to people, but you'd have to wait for a video to load for ages on YouTube,' said Ms Miller. Ms Miller used to spend her days walking around the city, taking Taekwondo lessons and going to a traditional Korean spa. She would also explore what was behind the doors of Pyongyang's nondescript shopfront doors. 'You'll go into a building that will have a shop that sells lawn mowers and cheese. Then, across from that will be a little cafe that's tucked away that you would never know was in there. Then you walk through the back and there's a gym and it's an amazingly equipped gym,' said Ms Miller. 'They're in these faceless buildings so you have to go in to see what's inside.' Regular trips to China to stock up on supplies became part of the diplomats' routine. 'When we crossed the bridge from North Korea to China, it sounds ridiculous, but we felt like finally we were in a country of freedom,' said Thomas Schaefer, who served two non-consecutive terms as Germany's ambassador to North Korea. 'It's funny but that is how you feel when you come out of North Korea.' Mr Gifford said his China excursions would usually be train rides to Dandong, a city right on the North Korean border, or flights to Beijing. 'We would come back with boxes full of stuff, which in the UK would be staples, like cheese, butter and bacon,' he said. Healthcare was also a reason to head over the border. While there was a doctor who worked out of the United Nations offices in Pyongyang who could treat diplomats for minor ailments, for anything more serious, foreigners were advised to go to China. Alastair Morgan, who served as the British ambassador to North Korea from 2015 to 2018, remembered that a diplomatic spouse fell ill and was taken to Pyongyang General Hospital. However, the treatment he was administered only made his condition worse and it was eventually decided that he needed to be treated outside of North Korea. 'He was driven up to the Chinese border and the first hospital in China that looked at him wouldn't take him, then the second took him and ended up treating him for acute appendicitis,' said Mr Morgan. The lack of safety is one of the reasons that some missions have yet to reopen their embassies after the Covid-19 pandemic forced them all out, several of the former diplomats told The Telegraph. Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which laid the groundwork for a new and stronger partnership between Moscow and Pyongyang, also contributed to the reluctance to reopen the missions. North Korea allowed foreign missions to return late last year and some, including the Swedish and Polish embassies, have reopened. However, others, including the UK and Germany, have held off. Mr Schaefer said that Pyongyang had invited Germany to reopen its embassy but the government was still considering the logistical concerns. Despite the clash of values and the numerous challenges of hosting Westerners, the former diplomats believed that there were – and are – benefits to having a presence inside the country. 'We could give messages into the regime that we could not be confident would be fed in by their diplomats overseas,' explained Mr Morgan. He also added that having a presence on the ground allowed for diplomats to collect information about life in North Korea that could be sent back to headquarters in Europe. The North Korean side also saw benefits to having the diplomats there. Having Western envoys inside the country gave North Korea a certain degree of recognition as well as access to alternative views, Mr Gifford explained. 'They wanted to be able to put their case across to as many people as they could,' he said. The Western embassies would also run humanitarian operations and language programmes for local communities, which were welcomed by the regime. However, while helpful, these were relatively small programmes bogged down by lots of bureaucracy and red tape and in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, the country needed a bigger partner that could offer support without asking any questions. 'Coming out of a three-and-a-half-year Covid lockdown, they needed a lot of help. They had no food, they had no medicine, they had no energy, they had nothing,' said Victor Cha, the Korea chair at the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. 'They had this opportunity with Russia to get food, fuel and hard currency, and so they made that choice, and the sacrifice would be their relations with European countries.' North Korea's relationship with other Western countries, namely the US, had also taken a turn for the worse. During Donald Trump's first term as president, engagement with North Korea and Kim Jong-un was a priority for the administration. The two men met three times at summits in Singapore, Hanoi and in the demilitarised zone between the two Koreas. However, the meetings were largely unsuccessful and ended up damaging relations between the two countries even more, said Dr Cha. 'The North Koreans and the leader specifically suffered the biggest embarrassment ever in the history of the leadership of the country when they engaged in these summits with Donald Trump and then Donald Trump walked out of the summit in Hanoi,' he said. 'He walked out saying there's no deal here and he literally left Kim Jong-un within the first day, before lunchtime.' Since Mr Trump was sworn in for his second term earlier this year, he has not made the same grand statements about meeting with Kim, although he reportedly tried to pass a letter to the regime's representative at the United Nations in New York. These efforts have reportedly been shunned – a clear sign of how much has changed in the last 10 years. 'Whatever Kim does, he won't go through the cycle that he went through before, which finished with the failure in Hanoi,' said Mr Morgan.
The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
Ukraine war briefing: Kim Jong-un voices ‘unconditional' support for Moscow as Russian foreign minister visits
North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un has reaffirmed his full support for Moscow in the war in Ukraine during talks with Russia's top diplomat, state media reported on Sunday. The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, is on a three-day visit to North Korea, the latest in a series of trips by top Moscow officials as the two countries deepen military and political ties. Kim and Lavrov met on Saturday in 'an atmosphere full of warm comradely trust', North Korea's official KCNA news agency reported. Kim told Lavrov that North Korea was 'ready to unconditionally support and encourage all the measures taken by the Russian leadership as regards the tackling of the root cause of the Ukrainian crisis'. Lavrov spoke to reporters at North Korea's eastern city of Wonsan, where he met Kim and North Korea's foreign minister Choe Son Hui, issuing a joint statement pledging support to safeguard the territorial integrity of each other's countries, KCNA said. A massive resort was opened in Wonson earlier this month. Ahead of Lavrov's visit, Russia announced that it would begin twice-a-week flights between Moscow and Pyongyang. Lavrov lauded Wonsan as 'a good tourist attraction', adding: 'We hope it will be popular not only with local citizens, but also with Russians.' Lavrov also warned the US, South Korea and Japan against forming a security partnership targeting North Korea, accusing the countries of what he called military buildups around North Korea. 'We warn against exploiting these ties to build alliances directed against anyone, including North Korea and, of course, Russia,' he said, according to Russia's state Tass news agency. The deepening relationship between Russia and North Korea has raised concerns among South Korea and the US that Russia might also transfer to North Korea sensitive technologies that can increase the danger of its nuclear and missile programmes. Lavrov said Russia understood North Korea's decision to seek nuclear weapons. 'The technologies used by North Korea are the result of the work of its own scientists. We respect North Korea's aspirations and understand the reasons why it is pursuing nuclear development,' Lavrov said, according to Tass. Russia fired hundreds of drones and long-range missiles across Ukraine overnight, killing at least six people in its latest wave of strikes, Ukraine said on Saturday. 'The Russians continue to use their specific tactics of terror against our country, striking concentrated blows at one city or another, at one region or another,' the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in his evening address. Moscow has stepped up aerial strikes over recent months as US-led ceasefire talks have stalled. 'Twenty-six cruise missiles and 597 attack drones were launched, of which more than half were 'Shaheds',' Zelenskyy said, referring to Iranian-made drones. The Ukrainian air force said it had downed 319 Shahed drones and 25 missiles, adding that one missile and about 20 drones had hit 'five locations'. Zelenskyy said the strikes had killed at least two people and wounded 20 in the south-western Chernivtsi region, far from the frontlines of the east and south. Twelve people were wounded in Lviv, also in the west, while in the east two people died in Dnipropetrovsk and three were wounded in Kharkiv, officials said. Zelenskyy said that some of the drones sent by Russia had been 'simulators' intended to 'overload the air-defence system and make it more difficult to shoot down the 'suicide drones'. This is their deliberate and despicable terror.' The Russian defence ministry said it had targeted companies in Ukraine's military-industrial complex in Lviv, Kharkiv and Lutsk and a military aerodrome. In a video message, Zelenskyy said 'we are close to reaching a multi-level agreement on new Patriot systems and missiles for them'. Ukraine was stepping up production of its own interceptor systems, he added. The US special envoy Keith Kellogg is due to begin his latest visit to Ukraine on Monday as a Washington-led peace effort flounders. Donald Trump also said he would make a 'major statement … on Russia' on Monday. On Friday, the Kremlin restated its opposition to a European peacekeeping force in Ukraine, after French President Emmanuel Macron said Kyiv's allies had a plan 'ready to go … in the hours after a ceasefire'. Zelenskyy urged his western allies to send 'more than just signals' to stop the war launched by Russia in February 2022. 'The pace of Russian airstrikes requires swift decisions and it can be curbed right now through sanctions,' he said on social media. Zelenskyy specifically demanded penalties for those who 'help Russia produce drones and profit from oil'.
The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
Ukraine war briefing: Kim Jong-un voices ‘unconditional' support for Moscow as Russian foreign minister visits
North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un has reaffirmed his full support for Moscow in the war in Ukraine during talks with Russia's top diplomat, state media reported on Sunday. The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, is on a three-day visit to North Korea, the latest in a series of trips by top Moscow officials as the two countries deepen military and political ties. Kim and Lavrov met on Saturday in 'an atmosphere full of warm comradely trust', North Korea's official KCNA news agency reported. Kim told Lavrov that North Korea was 'ready to unconditionally support and encourage all the measures taken by the Russian leadership as regards the tackling of the root cause of the Ukrainian crisis'. Lavrov spoke to reporters at North Korea's eastern city of Wonsan, where he met Kim and North Korea's foreign minister Choe Son Hui, issuing a joint statement pledging support to safeguard the territorial integrity of each other's countries, KCNA said. A massive resort was opened in Wonson earlier this month. Ahead of Lavrov's visit, Russia announced that it would begin twice-a-week flights between Moscow and Pyongyang. Lavrov lauded Wonsan as 'a good tourist attraction', adding: 'We hope it will be popular not only with local citizens, but also with Russians.' Lavrov also warned the US, South Korea and Japan against forming a security partnership targeting North Korea, accusing the countries of what he called military buildups around North Korea. 'We warn against exploiting these ties to build alliances directed against anyone, including North Korea and, of course, Russia,' he said, according to Russia's state Tass news agency. The deepening relationship between Russia and North Korea has raised concerns among South Korea and the US that Russia might also transfer to North Korea sensitive technologies that can increase the danger of its nuclear and missile programmes. Lavrov said Russia understood North Korea's decision to seek nuclear weapons. 'The technologies used by North Korea are the result of the work of its own scientists. We respect North Korea's aspirations and understand the reasons why it is pursuing nuclear development,' Lavrov said, according to Tass. Russia fired hundreds of drones and long-range missiles across Ukraine overnight, killing at least six people in its latest wave of strikes, Ukraine said on Saturday. 'The Russians continue to use their specific tactics of terror against our country, striking concentrated blows at one city or another, at one region or another,' the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in his evening address. Moscow has stepped up aerial strikes over recent months as US-led ceasefire talks have stalled. 'Twenty-six cruise missiles and 597 attack drones were launched, of which more than half were 'Shaheds',' Zelenskyy said, referring to Iranian-made drones. The Ukrainian air force said it had downed 319 Shahed drones and 25 missiles, adding that one missile and about 20 drones had hit 'five locations'. Zelenskyy said the strikes had killed at least two people and wounded 20 in the south-western Chernivtsi region, far from the frontlines of the east and south. Twelve people were wounded in Lviv, also in the west, while in the east two people died in Dnipropetrovsk and three were wounded in Kharkiv, officials said. Zelenskyy said that some of the drones sent by Russia had been 'simulators' intended to 'overload the air-defence system and make it more difficult to shoot down the 'suicide drones'. This is their deliberate and despicable terror.' The Russian defence ministry said it had targeted companies in Ukraine's military-industrial complex in Lviv, Kharkiv and Lutsk and a military aerodrome. In a video message, Zelenskyy said 'we are close to reaching a multi-level agreement on new Patriot systems and missiles for them'. Ukraine was stepping up production of its own interceptor systems, he added. The US special envoy Keith Kellogg is due to begin his latest visit to Ukraine on Monday as a Washington-led peace effort flounders. Donald Trump also said he would make a 'major statement … on Russia' on Monday. On Friday, the Kremlin restated its opposition to a European peacekeeping force in Ukraine, after French President Emmanuel Macron said Kyiv's allies had a plan 'ready to go … in the hours after a ceasefire'. Zelenskyy urged his western allies to send 'more than just signals' to stop the war launched by Russia in February 2022. 'The pace of Russian airstrikes requires swift decisions and it can be curbed right now through sanctions,' he said on social media. Zelenskyy specifically demanded penalties for those who 'help Russia produce drones and profit from oil'.
