North Korea Opens Wonsan-Kalma Resort With Russian Tourists in Focus

A beach resort for 20,000 guests, with a selective opening

North Korea has inaugurated a resort built to accommodate 20,000 guests along four kilometers, or 2.5 miles, of its eastern coastline. The Wonsan-Kalma Coastal Tourist Zone is the country's largest tourism project, yet its first visitors will come through a carefully controlled opening: domestic guests from July 1, 2025, followed by Russian tourists expected soon afterward.

Leader Kim Jong Un attended the June 25 opening ceremony with his wife, Ri Sol-ju, their daughter, Kim Ju-ae, and his sister, Kim Yo-jong. Russian Ambassador Alexander Matsegora and embassy staff were special guests, giving the celebration a diplomatic dimension as Pyongyang strengthens its relationship with Moscow.

Kim presented the development as a major achievement for North Korea. He called it:

one of the greatest successes this year.

As of June 28, the resort's inauguration marks the completion of a project delayed for years by sanctions, shortages of materials and the COVID-19 pandemic. Its hotels, villas, shops and water park are intended to bring in foreign currency while displaying the modern amenities that Kim wants associated with his leadership.

The central challenge is the gap between the size of the development and the number of foreign visitors who can currently reach it. Russian holidaymakers offer an initial market, but Chinese group tours, which previously supplied most international tourists, remain suspended. Access for ordinary North Koreans is also expected to be restricted.

What has been built on the Wonsan coast?

Wonsan-Kalma combines high-rise hotels, VIP villas and cottages, budget accommodation, restaurants, shopping centers, sports facilities and a water park. State media describe a destination offering both relaxation beside the sea and adventure activities for domestic and international guests.

Wonsan has longstanding importance to the Kim family and North Korea's elite. Kim spent much of his childhood there and has long wanted to turn the area into a showcase for tourism. His personal involvement gives the development a place in the government's account of national achievement and the continuity of the ruling family.

State media have promoted the resort as a tourism city of exceptional national importance, describing it as:

national treasure-level tourism city

Images of the opening showed Kim and his family relaxing beside a pool and watching guests use water slides and other attractions. The facilities are intended to appeal to wealthy or privileged domestic visitors as well as tourists from abroad.

How a project announced in 2013 reached its opening

The resort was first announced in 2013, and construction began in 2015. North Korea originally planned to complete it in 2019 to coincide with the birth anniversary of Kim Il-sung, the country's founder. That deadline passed, followed by further delays.

International sanctions, material shortages and the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the work. Construction resumed in earnest in 2024, reportedly with Russian material and economic support. South Korea's Unification Ministry has suggested that assistance from Russia may have been instrumental in finishing the development.

• 2013: North Korea announced the Wonsan-Kalma tourism project.
• 2015: Construction began.
• 2019: The original completion target, linked to Kim Il-sung's birth anniversary, was missed.
• 2024: Construction resumed in earnest, reportedly with Russian support.
• June 25, 2025: Kim Jong Un attended the opening ceremony with family members and Russian diplomatic guests.
• July 1, 2025: The resort is scheduled to open to domestic visitors.
• July 7, 2025: Russian tourists are expected to begin arriving as early as this date.

The opening therefore represents the completion of a longstanding ambition. Whether the investment can earn a sustained return now depends on access, demand and the government's decisions about which visitors it will admit.

Why Russia is the first foreign market

Travel agencies based in Vladivostok are offering packages lasting eight days for around $1,840. The packages include flights, accommodation at Wonsan-Kalma and excursions to other North Korean attractions, including the Masikryong Ski Resort. The price places them in the middle and upper parts of the holiday market.

Russian tourists could begin arriving as early as July 7. The reopening of rail and air links between Russia and North Korea is helping establish the route, although the expected arrivals remain part of a limited opening to foreign visitors.

South Korea's Unification Ministry interpreted the Russian ambassador's prominent invitation to the inauguration as a signal that North Korea intends to attract Russian tourists. His presence also drew attention to Moscow's possible contribution to completing the resort.

Russia's place in the launch reflects a broader change in North Korea's international relationships. Pyongyang historically relied on Chinese visitors for most of its foreign tourism business. It is now giving Russian holidaymakers priority as both governments face Western sanctions and diplomatic isolation.

For a visitor, the package is a beach holiday combined with organized excursions. For Pyongyang, each arrival offers spending from abroad and a visible civilian connection with Moscow alongside their growing political and military partnership.

Tourism's place in the relationship with Moscow

North Korea has deepened its alignment with Russia while providing military support to Moscow in its war against Ukraine. In return, Pyongyang is believed to have received economic and material assistance, some of which may have helped complete Wonsan-Kalma.

The ambassador's attendance, the reopening of transport links and the focus on Russian tour groups bring that relationship into the tourism sector. The resort serves an economic purpose, but it also signals solidarity with Russia and a willingness to engage with selected countries.

Tourism can act as soft diplomacy: governments use travel and civilian contact to make a relationship visible beyond formal meetings. At Wonsan-Kalma, that contact will take place within North Korea's tightly managed system rather than through unrestricted travel.

North Korea's relationship with China, its traditional ally and largest trading partner, appears to have cooled. Analysts suggest Beijing is reluctant to fully embrace Pyongyang's alignment with Russia against the West. Chinese group tours remain suspended, leaving the resort without the market that previously dominated foreign arrivals.

Why Chinese visitors matter to the business

Chinese tourists accounted for more than 90% of North Korea's foreign visitors before the pandemic. That means more than nine out of every ten international tourists came from China, illustrating how much the sector depended on a single neighboring country.

Russian packages offer a way to restart business, but Wonsan-Kalma is a substantial investment that needs a steady stream of visitors to recover its costs and produce revenue. Many analysts believe North Korea will eventually need Chinese group tours to resume for its tourism ambitions to become financially viable.

As of June 28, there are no concrete signs that Chinese group tours will restart soon. No date has been given for their return or for a broader opening to international tourists.

The resort's business prospects consequently depend on decisions beyond the beachfront itself. Hotels and attractions need paying guests, while foreign guests need permission to enter, available transport and tours they are willing to buy. North Korea controls each stage of that process.

How sanctions affect tourism payments

North Korea sees tourism as a way to earn foreign currency and revive its struggling economy. Foreign currency is money from outside the country that can help pay for purchases abroad. Tourist spending offers a potential income stream in an economy constrained by international sanctions.

Tourism is one of the few sectors not explicitly prohibited under United Nations sanctions, but the arrangements for paying and operating tours still matter. Individual tourists paying their own expenses on a cost reimbursement basis are generally considered to comply with international regulations.

UN Security Council Resolution 2270 prohibits transfers of bulk cash to North Korea. Resolution 2375 bans new joint ventures with North Korean entities. A joint venture is a business operated together by partners, in this case potentially involving a foreign company and a North Korean organization.

Those restrictions make the legal position more complicated than simply allowing people to visit. Tourism operations must be structured to avoid prohibited cash transfers and business partnerships. A resort seeking foreign revenue therefore also needs payment and operating arrangements that comply with the sanctions.

Wonsan-Kalma's financial ambitions sit within these limits. The government wants overseas spending, while tour operators must manage the rules governing how that money reaches North Korea and how they work with organizations there.

Transport capacity is far smaller than resort capacity

South Korean officials estimate that the maximum number of tourists who could reach the resort through flights from Vladivostok to Pyongyang is around 170 a day. North Korea has only a handful of international flight and train connections, limiting the flow of travelers.

The 170 daily arrivals estimated for that route amount to less than 1% of the resort's stated capacity of 20,000 guests. The figures describe different things, a daily flow of people and the number who can stay, but they show the scale of the transport challenge facing a development this large.

North Korea has built a new train station and an international airport adjacent to the resort to improve access. These investments suggest an intention to expand arrivals over time, although the current movement of foreign visitors will remain limited and tightly controlled.

Domestic visitors could provide another source of demand. Initial access is expected to favor the privileged elite from Pyongyang and other major cities, rather than ordinary North Koreans. The resort follows a wider pattern in which tourism serves both economic purposes and the government's control over access and movement.

Luxury facilities within a tightly controlled country

North Korea's hotels, VIP cottages, shopping malls, sports complexes and water park present an image of comfort that contrasts with chronic food shortages and widespread poverty. The country remains among the world's poorest and most isolated.

Human rights observers have described the environment faced by people living in North Korea in stark terms:

stifling, claustrophobic environment, where life is a daily struggle devoid of hope.

Foreign tourists also travel under strict controls. They are subject to constant surveillance and rules governing what they can see and photograph. Previous holidays at Masikryong have involved close monitoring, choreographed performances and limited interaction with ordinary citizens.

Wonsan-Kalma is expected to operate with similar restrictions. Visitors may have access to pools, beaches and entertainment while having few opportunities to encounter everyday life beyond the organized itinerary. That controlled experience is part of the resort's likely appeal to some travelers and a limitation for others.

Pyongyang is using modern amenities to project progress and openness while retaining authority over who enters and what they see. The beach resort offers selected contact with the outside world within that established model.

Mount Kumgang shows how politics can reshape tourism

North Korea's best known earlier experiment with international tourism began in the late 1990s at Mount Kumgang. The scenic area opened to South Korean visitors and became a symbol of engagement between the two Koreas.

Nearly two million South Korean tourists visited over a decade, providing Pyongyang with a critical source of hard currency. The project demonstrated that organized tourism could attract large numbers and generate income when political arrangements allowed it.

The initiative ended abruptly in 2008 after a North Korean soldier shot a South Korean tourist. The tourism sites were later demolished. Since then, North Korea has made several attempts to revive the sector, with limited success.

Wonsan-Kalma is the latest and most ambitious effort. Mount Kumgang's history shows how tourism income in North Korea can depend on political relationships and security decisions as much as on the appeal of the destination. The new resort faces its own combination of transport limits, sanctions and isolation.

What specialists and tour operators expect

Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University's Institute for Far Eastern Studies, expects the privileged domestic elite to be the initial target, with Russian tourists following through a phased opening. He links the development to Kim's vision of "socialist civilization" and his effort to seek economic breakthroughs through tourism.

Some analysts view the project as an ambitious attempt to diversify North Korea's economy and present an image of modernization. Others doubt its prospects because of the country's limited appeal as a holiday destination and continuing restrictions on foreign travel.

Edward Howell, a North Korea expert at the University of Oxford, expressed caution about its ability to generate lasting income:

Whether this resort will provide Kim Jong Un with his much-needed economic gain in the long-term, however, remains to be seen: Wonsan-Kalma is hardly a tourist hotspot in the first place.

Rowan Beard, co-founder of Young Pioneer Tours, also expressed disappointment that the inauguration did not appear to bring wider access for international visitors:

I was hoping this might signal a broader reopening to international tourism, but unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case for now.

Elliott Davies, director of Uri Tours, identified a possible niche among adventurous travelers interested in unconventional destinations. He described the attraction of seeing a familiar type of holiday setting within North Korea:

It's intriguing to experience something as familiar as a beach resort that's been shaped within the unique cultural context of North Korea.

Those assessments point to different audiences: privileged domestic guests, Russian tourists traveling through a strengthening diplomatic relationship, and travelers interested in an unusual experience. The government's next scheduled steps are the domestic opening on July 1 and possible Russian arrivals from July 7.

Wonsan-Kalma already serves as a display of Kim's economic and diplomatic ambitions. Its success as a business will depend on sustained visitor numbers, workable transport and the scope of future entry permissions, while its operation remains tied to North Korea's strict controls.

Key Points

• Kim Jong Un inaugurated Wonsan-Kalma on June 25, 2025, with family members and Russian diplomatic guests present.
• The resort covers four kilometers of coastline and can accommodate 20,000 guests.
• Domestic visitors are scheduled to enter from July 1, with Russian tourists expected as early as July 7.
• Packages lasting eight days cost around $1,840 and include flights, resort accommodation and excursions.
• The project was announced in 2013, began construction in 2015 and missed its original completion target in 2019.
• Work resumed in earnest in 2024, reportedly with Russian assistance.
• Chinese visitors accounted for more than 90% of foreign tourists before the pandemic, but Chinese group tours remain suspended.
• Transport limits, sanctions rules and tightly controlled access constrain the resort's prospects.
• The development combines a search for foreign currency with a public display of North Korea's closer relationship with Russia.