How North
Korea is trying to attract Russian tourists
new beach
resort in North Korea welcomed its first group of Russian tourists this week.
Human rights groups have also criticised the harsh treatment of workers working
at the resort.
Last month,
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inaugurated the Wonsan Calma resort in a grand
ceremony, calling it a “world-class tourist and cultural destination”.
Details of
how the resort was built are kept top secret in a country that is largely
closed to the outside world.
obtained internal planning documents and
spoken to experts and former people close to the North Korean government about
concerns about human rights abuses during the construction of the resort.
A North
Korean brochure shows a map of the resort, which shows 43 hotels on the beach,
as well as several guesthouses and camping sites on the shores of an artificial
lake.
We matched
these locations with satellite images, although we could not confirm their
current use.
There is
also a water park with long slides, which is a short distance from the beach.
Further
north is an entertainment quarter, which includes a cinema, theatre, leisure
and fitness centre.
Satellite
images taken over 18 months in 2018 show dozens of buildings spread over a
four-kilometre (2.5-mile) stretch of coastline.
According to
research by satellite imagery firm SI Analytics in South Korea, “by that time
(in 2018) the resort was 80 percent complete.” However, after these accelerated
construction efforts, work on the site appears to have stalled and resumed in
June 2024 after Kim Jong-un met with Vladimir Putin, and the Russian president
said he would encourage his citizens to vacation in North Korean tourist
resorts.
The
resort’s human cost
The rapid
pace of construction of the resort has raised concerns about the treatment of
workers.
The United
Nations has highlighted the system of forced labor in North Korea, particularly
the so-called “shock brigades,” where workers often face harsh conditions, long
hours, and inadequate pay.
“There are
reports that shock brigades were used to build the resort,” says James Heinen
of the UN human rights office in Seoul.
“We have also
received reports that people worked 24 hours a day.”
Kang Gyuri
also said that when the resort project was expanded, Wonsan residents were
evicted from their homes without compensation.
BBC Verify's
team was able to identify the demolition of buildings near a main road leading
to the resort using satellite images. They are now being replaced by large
tower blocks.
Where are
the foreign tourists?
Wonsan Calma
is seen as playing a key role not only in North Korea’s economic recovery but
also in strengthening ties with Russia.
The initial
target was to attract more than a million tourists, with the majority of
arrivals expected to come from China and Russia, according to documents seen by
BBC Verify.
We scanned
travel agency websites in both China and Russia for any listings promoting the
new resort. None of the Chinese agencies we checked advertised tours to Wonsan.
In Russia, however, we identified three agencies offering tours, including
Wonsan Calma.
We called
one of the Russian agencies in early July as an interested customer a week
before its first departure and were told it had attracted 12 people from
Russia.
The
week-long trip to North Korea cost $1,800, 60 percent more than the average
monthly salary in Russia.
Two other
agencies we contacted offered similar tour packages, but declined to say how
many people had signed up.
Andrei
Lankov, an expert on Russia-North Korea relations at Kookmin University in
Seoul, said it was unlikely that Wonsan would become seriously popular with
Russian tourists.
“Russian
tourists can easily go to places like Turkey, Egypt, Thailand and Vietnam,
which are much better developed than North Korea,” he said. “The standards of
service are high and you are not constantly monitored.”
According to
the tour operator we spoke to, in addition to the Russian tour group that
visited Wonsan this week, two more tours are scheduled for next month.
We have not
yet seen photographic evidence of this first group of tourists arriving at the
resort.
Additional
reporting by Yaroslava Kryukhina, Yi Ma and Christina Kivus/Graphics by Sally
Nichols and Aaron Rewalt
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