Beach Watch: North Korea’s Wonsan Gets a Boost

#TIA – All those people who’ve been worrying about North Korea’s nuclear threat can now start signing up for its beaches. 

In Kim Jong Un’s 2019 New Year’s address, he emphasized the importance of economic development and listed a few of his priority projects, including the Wonsan-Kalma Tourist Zone. While Kim may have been somewhat critical of this project’s status when he visited the zone last October, significant progress has been made in the past two years to prepare for an October 2019 opening.

Commercial satellite imagery shows that the resort was only a few buildings near the Wonsan-Kalma airport in July 2017 but had grown into a vast beachfront complex in just over a year. Kim’s reported “disappointment” of the project—criticizing the design and layout of the resort, and calling for more amenities, such as game arcades, theaters and a funfair—follows in line with his more critical demeanor during his site visits since last summer.[1] After Kim’s October site visit, the pace of construction remained high and by December, the majority of buildings that had been under construction nearing external completion and several new or redesigned buildings were in advanced stages of construction. There were significant efforts to landscape and beautify the resort grounds as well.

Read more at 38 North