North Korea doesn’t want foreigners in their new seaside resort, here’s why

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s pet project, sprawling seaside resort on its east coast, has opened to domestic visitors earlier in July with great fanfare, reported rfi.fr.

The South Korean media has dubbed the Wonsan-Kalma Coastal Tourist Zone as ‘North Korea’s Waikiki’ which appears to be lined with high-rise hotels and waterparks. The report added that the sprawling seaside resort can purportedly accommodate some 20,000 people.

However, in a statement posted on an official website this week, the North Korea’s National Tourism Administration said “foreign tourists are temporarily not being accepted”. They didn’t prove any details regarding this update.

During his early years in power, Kim Jong Un had shown a keen interest in developing North Korea’s tourism industry and the coastal resort area was a particular focus.

During construction of the facilities Kim Jong Un often visited the site to oversee progress on a project that features about 7,000 guest rooms in luxury hotels and private villas, an outdoor waterpark and an airport, according to state media.

Quoting analysts, the report said that the opening of the beach resort may be termed as “one of the greatest successes this year” by North Korea and Kim may build more large-scale tourist zones “in the shortest time possible”.

The report said that in 2024, North Korea permitted Russian tourists to return for the first time since the pandemic, and Western tour operators briefly returned in February 2025.

South Korea reacts:

Meanwhile, South Korea’s unification ministry expects the international tourism to the new resort was “likely to remain small in scale”, citing the limited capacity of available flights.

Last week, Kim held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Wonsan and offered Russia his full and “unconditional” support for its war in Ukraine, KCNA reported.

Reportedly, Lavrov hailed the seaside project as a “good tourist attraction” and expected it may become popular among both local and Russian visitors looking for new destinations.

Also, Russia announced that it would begin twice-a-week flights between Moscow and Pyongyang.