Economics > North Korea's 'Beach of Dreams' still mostly empty as Pyongyang forbids foreigners; Lavrov first dignitary to tour Wonsan-Kalma beach resort

 

North Korea suspends foreign tourism

to new beach resort

By Thomas Maresca

   

North Korea has suspended foreign tourism to its massive new Wonsan Kalma beach resort just weeks after the "world-class" facility's opening, a state-run tourism website announced. File Photo by KCNA/EPA

SEOUL, July 18 (UPI) -- Just weeks after opening a massive new beach resort, North Korea has banned foreign visitors from the self-proclaimed "world-class" facility, according to a state-run tourism promotion website.

"Foreign tourists are temporarily not accepted at the Wonsan Kalma coastal tourist zone," a notice on the official DPR Korea Tour site said Wednesday. No explanation was given for the ban.

The information came in a post announcing the July 1 opening of the facility, which runs along 2.5 miles of beachfront and has a capacity for up to 20,000 guests. The tourist zone also boasts recreational facilities such as a water park, gym and concert hall.

When the Wonsan Kalma tourist area officially opened, North Korea promoted it as a destination for both domestic and foreign tourists. A small group of Russian guests visited last week, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un there.

Related

• Direct flights between Pyongyang and Moscow to begin this month
• North Korea opens massive beach resort, will welcome Russian tourists
• North Korea set to open 'world-class' beach resort

"Our Korean friends have expressed interest in having more Russians at the wonderful resort of Wonsan and other resorts in the DPRK," Lavrov said at a press conference during his visit, using the official acronym for North Korea. "I have no doubt that this will happen."

The resort has long been a favored project of Kim, who oversaw its launch in 2014. It was initially slated to open in April 2019 but faced numerous setbacks, including international sanctions on materials.

At a ribbon-cutting ceremony last month, the North Korean leader called the completion of the resort one of the country's "greatest successes this year" and said it would "play a leading role in establishing the tourist culture of the DPRK."

International tourism offers a rare chance for the sanctions-hit North to earn foreign currency, but visitors have been almost nonexistent since Pyongyang sealed its borders at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in January 2020.

Russian travelers were the first to return post-COVID as North Korean carrier Air Koryo resumed a route between Vladivostok in Russia's Far East and Pyongyang last year. On Monday, Russia's Transport Ministry announced that budget carrier Nordwind will begin operating direct service between Moscow and Pyongyang later this month.

In May, the United States extended its ban on travel by American citizens to North Korea for the ninth year in a row, citing "imminent danger" posed by any trips to the authoritarian state.

Moscow comments on reports of North Korean resort closure

Western claims linking Wonsan shutdown to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s visit are “fake,” spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said

FILE PHOTO. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. ©  Sputnik/Sergey Bobylev

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has refuted recent Western media reports claiming that North Korea closed its brand-new Wonsan-Kalma beach resort to foreign tourists after a visit from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Bloomberg and AP ran a story on Friday citing North Korean tourism authorities claiming the resort was “temporarily not receiving foreign guests,” with Bloomberg linking the closure to the minister’s visit.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has since stated that the suspension had nothing to do with the diplomatic trip but was rather due to COVID-19 restrictions that have been in place in North Korea since February of 2020. It noted, however, that “an exception has been made for tourists from the Russian Federation, who have been visiting the country since early 2024.”

READ MORE: North Korea opens ‘world-class’ tourist resort (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

“US media outlets affiliated with American intelligence services have spread disinformation,” Zakharova told journalists. The diplomat went on to describe the claim as “classic lies” and “a crude fake,” most likely driven by “nothing more than the spite” of Washington’s military and political elite, which “has seen their strategy of pressuring North Korea fail.”

Lavrov became the first high-profile foreign guest to tour the resort since it opened to visitors earlier this month. Zakharova accompanied the top diplomat and posted photographs from the resort on her Telegram channel.

©  Telegram/MariaVladimirovnaZakharova

The trip was intended to highlight the growing cooperation between the two countries since the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict.

During talks with North Korean officials, Lavrov described the facility as “great,” saying Russia would help boost tourism and transport links with the DPRK.

Direct flights currently operate between Russia’s Far Eastern city of Vladivostok and Pyongyang. Some 1500 Russian tourists visited North Korea last year, according to the deputy governor of the Primorye Region, where Vladivostok is located.

Lavrov thanks ‘heroic’ North Korean soldiers for helping liberate Kursk Region

Russia’s Nordwind Airlines is set to launch direct service from Moscow to the North Korean capital later this month.

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Tensions are heating up on the Korean peninsula with nuclear threats and isolation

Why is South Korea teasing the tiger? Reunification is abandoned even though it was the best tool for negotiating peace on the peninsula. Is the war industry at work here?

Kim Jong Un threatens to use nuclear weapons

against U.S., South Korea

SEOUL, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned the United States and South Korea that any attack would be met with a nuclear response, state media reported Tuesday, as tensions remain high on the Peninsula and concerns swirl about a possible provocation ahead of the U.S. presidential election.

Kim made the threat in a speech during his visit to Kim Jong Un University of National Defense on Monday, according to Korean Central News Agency.

"If the enemy attempts to use force against our state, the armed forces of the Republic will use all their offensive power without hesitation," he said. "This does not preclude the use of nuclear weapons."

Kim added that the North's "steps toward becoming a military superpower and a nuclear power will be accelerated."

North Korea passed a law declaring itself a nuclear state in 2022 and claimed the right to conduct a preemptive nuclear strike if threatened.

The warning came after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said last week that Kim's regime would be eliminated if it tried a nuclear attack against the South.

"If North Korea attempts to use nuclear weapons, it will face the resolute and overwhelming response of our military and the ROK-U.S. alliance," Yoon said during an Armed Forces Day address. "That day will be the end of the North Korean regime."

A parade celebrating the anniversary of the South's military featured the unveiling of a new "bunker buster" ballistic missile, the Hyunmoo-5, capable of carrying a massive 8-ton warhead.

Kim responded by calling Yoon an "abnormal man" in remarks carried by state media. He again referred to the South Korean president in his speech Monday, saying he was showing "blind faith" in the power of the United States.

"A wise politician should not engage in reckless remarks about the safety of the country and the people, but should put more effort into managing the situation to prevent military conflicts rather than confrontation with a nuclear state," Kim said.

Relations between the neighbors have been on the decline over the past few years amid a steady stream of weapons tests and bellicose rhetoric from the North and a hardline stance from Seoul.

Earlier this year, Kim declared the South the "principal enemy" and publicly called for a constitutional change rejecting the long-held official goal of reunification.

North Korea had previously announced that it would convene a key parliamentary meeting on Monday to revise its constitution, but no reports have appeared in state media as of Tuesday.

Pyongyang also raised the specter of its nuclear threat recently by showing off an enrichment facility for weapons-grade uranium last month. Analysts have said that the North is looking to send a message to the United States ahead of next month's presidential election and may conduct a provocation such as an ICBM or nuclear test.

North Korea to cut off all roads and railways

to South Korea

SEOUL, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- North Korea's military said Wednesday that it is permanently sealing off its border with South Korea, cutting off all rail and road connections and bolstering defensive fortifications, state-run media reported.

"A project will be launched first on October 9 to completely cut off roads and railways connected to the ROK and fortify the relevant areas of our side with strong defense structures," a report from the Korean People's Army, carried in the official Korean Central News Agency, said.

"For our army to permanently shut off and block the southern border with the ROK, the primary hostile state and invariable principal enemy, in the current situation is a self-defensive measure for inhibiting war and defending the security of the DPRK," it said, using the official acronyms for both South and North Korea.

North Korea said the move was in response to the "acute military situation" on the Korean Peninsula, citing the South's military exercises and visits by U.S. "strategic nuclear assets" for the decision.

The North's military added that it sent a telephone message to U.S. forces in South Korea at 9:45 a.m. local time to inform them of the project.

Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff responded to the announcement, calling it "worthless."

How rude! A more elegant response might have been helpful here.

The blockade is "nothing more than a last resort measure stemming from the insecurity of the failed Kim Jong Un regime, and will lead to even more severe isolation in the future," the JCS said in a text message sent to reporters on Wednesday afternoon.

"Our military will never tolerate any actions by North Korea that attempt to unilaterally change the status quo, and we clearly warn that North Korea will be responsible for all situations that arise as a result," it added.

Tensions around the DMZ have risen in recent months, with North Korea sending thousands of trash-carrying balloons across the border and Seoul responding with loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts.

Pyongyang has also maintained a steady stream of weapons tests and hostile rhetoric toward its neighbor. Earlier this week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned of a nuclear response to any attacks by the United States and South Korea.

In February, Kim declared the South the "invariable principal enemy" and publicly called for a constitutional change rejecting the long-held official goal of reunification. North Korea's parliament held a session this week to revise its constitution, KCNA reported Wednesday, but did not specify whether any changes were made to officially name South Korea a hostile state.

Does South Korea have nuclear weapons?

South Korea abandoned its nuclear weapons program in the 1970s, as Washington pushed nonproliferation, and chose to rely on the United States to defend it against the North. Tens of thousands of American troops have been garrisoned for decades in the South, which for many years also hosted U.S. nuclear weapons.

Aug 19, 2024

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Military Madness > Kim Jong Un's Ego Hungrier than NK People

..

Kim Jong Un declares plans to make North Korea 'world's most powerful'

nuclear force

It would appear Kim Jong Un would rather feed his ego than the millions of hungry North Koreans.

By Adam Schrader

This photo released on Nov. 19 by the North Korean government shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspecting

the Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile at Pyongyang International Airport in Pyongyang with his young daughter.

File Photo by Office of the North Korean government press service / UPI | License Photo

Nov. 27 (UPI) -- Kim Jong Un has declared his plans to make North Korea the "world's most powerful" nuclear force in an official order promoting defense science researchers.

Kim made the announcement in an order that was published by the country's only news agency, KCNA, on Saturday.

"Our relentless work to build nuclear forces to firmly defend the dignity and sovereignty of the state and the people by hundreds of millions of units is the greatest and most important revolutionary cause, and its final goal is to seize the world's strongest strategic force, absolute power unprecedented in the century," Kim said in the order.

Kim said that the scientists have developed "the world's most powerful strategic weapon," an intercontinental ballistic missile called Hwaseong-17.

The nuclear warhead, which is theoretically able to reach the United States, was test-fired earlier this month.

The supreme leader praised the scientists for "completing the development of nuclear weapons and making a remarkable leap forward in the development of nuclear weapons."

"The country's firm determination and decisive execution power toward the goal of the world's most powerful military, enormous potential and confident victory are shown to the world," Kim said.

The announcement came after Kim made a second public appearance with his young daughter, raising speculation about his succession.

Democratic People's Republic of Korea:

10.7 million people are undernourished

18% of children are stunted (impaired growth and development due to chronic malnutrition)

25.9 million population

Christians in North Korea Hold Worship Service with Japanese Visitors

Is this a sign that North Korea is loosening its grip on Christians?

By Elizabeth Shim

Pongsu Church (pictured) hosted visitors from Japan last week, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper reported Monday.

File Photo by KCNA/EPA

Bongsu Church is a Protestant church in the Konguk-dong of the Mangyongdae District of Pyongyang in North Korea. It is one of just a handful churches in the country and one of only two Protestant churches, the other one being Chilgol Church. - Wikipedia

(UPI) -- Christian groups based in Japan recently took part in a state-sanctioned church service in North Korea amid tensions following Pyongyang's multiple rounds of weapons tests.

Choson Sinbo, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper based in Japan, reported Monday Japan-based organizations Korean Christian Church in Japan and the National Christian Council in Japan visited North Korea from July 27 to Aug. 1.

North Korea has consistently ranked as one of the world's most religiously repressive societies. U.S. nonprofit Open Doors has said the regime ranks number one in the world for religious persecution, a statement Pyongyang has denied.

The delegates met with North Korean members of the Korean Christian Federation and engaged in "deep exchange," the Choson Sinbo said in a report that included photographs of a worship service.

The church service took place at 10 a.m. July 28 at Pongsu Church in Pyongyang, with members of the three organizations in attendance. The church has previously received foreign visitors, including the Rev. Billy Graham.

The North Korean Protestant church's pastor, Song Chol Min, said the gathering signaled progress.

"We passionately welcome our brothers and sisters visiting Pyongyang who come here to worship on the Lord's Day," Song reportedly said.

Participants at the service prayed for peace and unification of the Korean Peninsula, sang hymns, delivered sermons and built new friendships, the Chosun Sinbo said.

Kim Jong-hyun, chairman of KCCJ, said he "felt a familiarity" with the North Korean participants, who "prayed and used the Bible."

"We were moved by their singing of hymns in the same language as ours," said Kim, an ethnic Korean based in Japan.

Japanese Christians, including Takuya Iizuka and Michio Sano, reportedly apologized for Japan's discriminatory practices against Koreans and for the colonial past, according to the report.

Japan's occupation of the Korean Peninsula resulted in Korean migration to Japan, including the recruitment of forced laborers.

Some of the Korean migrants who resettled in Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II, were remembered at a memorial for Korean victims of the atomic bomb, the Mainichi Shimbun reported Monday.

In the War on Christianity in North Korea - A Long-Awaited Counter-Offensive

South Korean Christians launch group promoting

religious freedom in North Korea

ByYonhap News Agency

Kenneth Bae, a South Korean-American, spent about two years in a North Korean labor camp.

File Photo by Yonhap/EPA

SEOUL, (UPI) -- South Korean Christian leaders and activists on Friday launched an association to secure and promote religious freedom in North Korea.

The International Coalition for Religious Freedom in North Korea held its inaugural meeting in central Seoul on Friday, bringing together some 200 activists and Christian advocates.

Among them are Thae Yong-ho, who served as a high-ranking North Korean diplomat based in London before defecting to South Korea in 2016, and Kenneth Bae, a Christian missionary who was detained in North Korea from 2012 to 2014 on subversion allegations.

Taking responsibility for the task of introducing and fostering religious freedom, the coalition is planning to rally national and international support to the cause.

In a forum held during the inaugural meeting, Thae accused North Korea of "annihilating, not suppressing" religions in the communist country.

"The first step toward inter-Korean reunification should be giving religious freedom to North Korea," he said.

He then proposed building one or two Christian churches in 10 years as a way to realize religious freedom.

Recalling his two-year imprisonment in the North, Bae said North Korea considers religious diffusion more threatening to the regime than American nuclear weapons.

He also urged South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump to put religious freedom on the agenda of their future summits with North Korean chairman Kim Jong Un.

Why North Korea's Kim Jong Un Executed His Uncle

Defector: Jang Song Thaek wrecked North Korea's economy

By Elizabeth Shim

In this 2013 photo, a South Korean man watches TV news showing North Korean politician Jang Song Thaek

 as he appears before a military tribunal. A defector in the South says North Korea’s internal politics

and economy are misunderstood. File Photo by Jeon Heon-kyun/EPA

SEOUL, UPI -- North Korea's economy is structured so differently from the South's that its capitalist economy would be "unimaginable" to most North Koreans, according to a defector who once claimed membership in the Korean Workers' Party.

The former North Korean citizen, identified only by his surname Kim, served in the North Korean air force before he resettled in the South. He said important features of Pyongyang's planned economy are gravely misunderstood in the South, as are incidents like the execution of Kim Jong Un's uncle-in-law Jang Song Thaek.

"South Korean analysts who study North Korea are bad, because they blame the command economy for the Great Famine," the former North Korean pilot recently said.

The defector said drastic actions from powerful members of the North Korean regime, including Jang, were responsible for the shutdown of North Korean industry when millions starved.

"In South Korea, capital sits at the top of the hierarchy," Kim said. "In North Korea, people are at the center. In South Korea, without capital, you can't do anything. In North Korea, people work for each other."

When North Korea publicly disclosed the execution of Kim Jong Un's uncle-in-law in 2013, the news sent shockwaves around the world.

But according to defector Kim, Jang was a "bad person" who enriched himself during North Korea's notorious 1994-98 Great Famine, when idle machines in factories were torn apart and sold.

Jang was responsible for selling North Korean coal to China, even though the energy source was needed domestically. Coal mining productivity had plunged to one-fifth of pre-famine levels, but Jang exported the resource to China, Kim said.

North Koreans may also have been surprised, but not shocked, when Jang was sentenced to death by his nephew.

Jang, who secretly controlled the levers of power in the North for decades, ordered the rounding up of citizens with spinal disorders that cause dwarfism, Kim said.

The victims were sent to concentration camps because Jang believed their presence in society was "bad for socialism."

The men and women were "secretly kidnapped," around the time of the 1976 Korean axe murder incident at the border. Families would find them unexpectedly missing when they returned home. North Korea at the time reeled from the shock of the Jang-led mission to round up the disabled, Kim said.

A 'people-centered' economy

Just as the South's capitalist economy could leave many North Koreans scratching their heads, North Korea's economy may also baffle outsiders.

Profits are the least of economic priorities in North Korea, the defector said, where a pair of shoes that costs 60 cents to produce would be supplied to the population at 3 cents.

"In North Korea that would be jackpot pricing. In a capitalist economy that would be going for broke," Kim said.

The notion of an economy that benefits people also means Kim Jong Un is not the kind of dictator outsiders have assumed him to be.

The North Korean leader's field guidance visits are neither the product of an executive decision nor autocratic whimsy.

"Chairman Kim conducts field guidance according to Party direction," the defector told UPI. "Kim receives [institutional] permission, and then he has a duty to conduct field guidance."

Looking to the future

While South Koreans more familiar with profit-driven economic development learn about North Korea, experts on inter-Korea connectivity are preparing for the future.

Min Kyung-tae, a North Korea specialist at Seoul-based Yeosijae, Future Consensus Institute, told UPI the South Korean government ought to look beyond the manufacturing model of economic development in the long term.

Seoul shut down Kaesong, a jointly operated factory park in North Korea in February 2016, after a former South Korean administration claimed Kaesong proceeds were being used to fund North Korea's weapons programs.

"For the future we need projects involving advanced technology, next-generation industries of the Fourth Industrial Revolution," Min said, referring to the phase of development when robotics, artificial intelligence and self-driving cars enter mainstream society.

Min said North Korea is an ideal place to plan entire cities around emerging technological breakthroughs, because it is relatively undeveloped. The idea is one of several themes he raises in his book about the potential for a Fourth Industrial Revolution in North Korea.

"In North Korea, a new city could be built for self-driving taxis," Min said. "In South Korea if the government designates a city a self-driving taxi zone, drivers would go on strike."

Kim said the Fourth Industrial Revolution, if introduced in North Korea, would not have the same significance it would have in the South, the world's most wired country.

Artificial intelligence and other innovations will not be valued for their disruptive value to society, but rather, how they improve the lives of North Koreans, he said.

"If North and South are to cooperate, they must know each other well," Kim said.

Astonishing Policy Decisions by North Korea

Path to denuclearization?

North Korea announces 6 pivotal decisions

North Korea's ruling party holds a banquet / Reuters file photo

Pyongyang has declared a new strategic course for the country, announcing an indefinite suspension of all nuclear and ballistic missile tests, in the run-up to the planned meeting between Kim Jon-un and US President Donald Trump.

At a plenary meeting of the central committee of the Worker's Party of Korea, the ruling party has outlined six crucial decisions:

#1. North Korea ‘solemnly’ declared that its previous ballistic and missile tests have allowed the country to successfully miniaturize warheads and develop their means of delivery.

#2. Effective immediately, any further nuclear and ballistic missile tests will be frozen, starting April 21, 2018

#3. North Korea’s nuclear test center will be discarded in order to ensure the transparency of the nuclear research suspension.

#4. Pyongyang will never use nuclear weapons, unless there is a “nuclear threat or nuclear provocation” against North Korea, and “in no case will proliferate nuclear weapons and nuclear technology.”

#5. From now on, all Pyongyang’s efforts will be concentrated on building up a strong socialist economy, while the human and material resources of the country will be mobilized to dramatically raise people’s quality of life.

#6. Pyongyang will establish a favorable international environment and will intensify close dialogue with neighboring countries and the international community, in order to protect the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and the world.

These are simply astonishing and could hardly be any better. The questions are: Is it true? And, if it's true, will they actually do it? North Korea has a history of promising one thing and doing something completely different. Will this time be any different? Not likely, but we can always hope. 

These policies are almost certainly negotiated positions. Pyongyang would not begin negotiations from such a basis. Their announcement makes it look like it's their idea and saves them face, a big deal in Asian cultures. 

If Pyongyang actually follows these policies, the world could be a dramatically different place. 

Let's hope and pray that Kim Jong Un is the real deal and not just trying to put something over on his enemies. Overcoming communist paranoia would be a remarkable accomplishment.