North Korean style resort welcomes the first Russian tourists

This week, a new beach resort in North Korea, criticizing human rights groups for cruel treatment with construction workers, welcomed its first group of Russian tourists.

Wonsan Kalma resort was opened at a grand ceremony last month North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who perceived it as a “world -class tourist and cultural destination”.

The details of how this resort was built were enveloped in the country, largely closed to the outside world.

The BBC Verify studied satellite images, received internal planning documents and talked to experts and former North Korean insiders about their problems for human rights abuses during the development of the site.

Kim Jong Un spent most of his youth in Vonsan, and before the construction of a new resort, which was a popular resting place for the country’s elite.

“When the Vonsana tourist zone was initially planned … The idea was to attract about one million tourists to the area, keeping it in a closed zone,” says North Korea, a senior economic official who participated in the early stages of the resort and transferred in 2014.

“The intention was to open North Korea a little.”

In 2017, the year before the construction began, who sent the delegation to the mission to search for facts in Spain, where the team was visited by the Benidor resort.

The North Korean delegation “included high-ranking politicians and many architects who made a lot of notes,”-recalls Matthias Perez, who is a member of the Spanish team who conducted a delegation, including the thematic park, multi-storey hotels and marina.

The North Korean brochure with the resort card has 43 hotels, found along the beach front, as well as the guest houses on artificial lakes and places for camping.

We were in line with this place with high resolution satellite images, though we could not make sure whether they were actually completed.

The water park, complete with the elevated yellow water slides, is installed from the beach.

Next in the north there is an entertainment quarter, which includes buildings that are identified as a theater, rest and fitness centers and cinema.

Starting in the beginning of 2018, satellite images taken over 18 months reveal dozens of buildings that arise along 4 km (2.5 miles) areas of the coastline.

By the end of 2018, about 80% of the resort was completed, according to a satellite firm, Si Analytics based in South Korea.

However, after this whirlwind of construction efforts, work on the site seems to have paused.

This fast -building pace caused concern about the treatment of those who work on the spot.

The UN has highlighted the forced labor system used in North Korea, in particular “strike brigades”, where workers often face tough conditions, long hours and lack of compensation.

James Henon of the UN Human Rights in Seoul says “there is reports that the resort was built using what they call shock brigades.”

“We also saw reports that people at the end worked 24 hours to finish this business, which sounds like a shock brigade for me.”

The BBC talked to one North Korean who served and as a result of the blows.

Despite the fact that Cho Chung Huy – who passed away – did not participate in the construction of the Wonsan resort, he recalled the cruel conditions of the brigades he overseen.

“The principle behind these (brigades) was that, no matter what, you had to complete the task, even if it cost you your life,” he said.

“I saw many women under such physical tension and ate so badly that their periods stopped at all.”

Kan Gury, who worked in Vonsan before fleeing to South Korea in 2023, says her cousin voluntarily worked at the construction site because he saw it as a path to the residence of Pyongyang, which is reserved for citizens who trust the regime.

“He could hardly sleep. They (not) gave him enough to eat,” she said.

“The benefits are not organized properly, some people just die during work, and they (the authorities) are not responsible when they fall and die.”

Ms Kont also stated that the residents of Vonsan were removed from their homes when the project of the resort was expanding, often without compensation.

Although not characteristic of the experience of Ms. Kan, the BBC Verify was able to identify by satellite analysis of buildings near the main road leading to the resort. Large tower blocks are visible in their place.

“They just demolish everything and create something new, especially if it is in a good place,” said Ms. Kan.

“The problem is that no matter how unfair it feels, people cannot speak openly and protest.”

The BBC appealed to North Korean officials for comment.

North Korea has been almost completely closed for foreign visitors, which are only a few high -core excursions that have been allowed to visit the country in recent years.

Vonson Kalma is regarded not only as an important role in the revival of the sanctioned economic modernity of the country, but also as a means of strengthening its ties with Russia – which became closer after Pyongyang military support For the war of Moscow in Ukraine.

According to early planning documents seeing the BBC, the initial purpose was to attract more than a million visitors, and foreign tourists are supposedly coming mainly from China and Russia.

In China, and in Russia, we have conducted scanned tourist agencies sites that promote travel to the new resort.

None of the Chinese agencies we checked did not advertise trips to Vonson. However, in Russia, we have identified three agencies that offer excursions that included Vonson Kalma.

We called one of the Russian agencies in early July, which became an interested client a week before the first planned departure on July 7, and he was told that he attracted 12 people from Russia.

A week -long trip to North Korea, including three days at the Wonsan resort, cost $ 1,800 (1300 pounds) – 60% more than the average monthly salary in Russia.

According to this tour operator, two more trips are planned.

We contacted two other agencies that offer similar tourist packages, but they refused to reveal how many people signed up.

Andrei Lankov, an expert on Russian-north, at Korean relations at the University of Kukmin in Seoul, said Vonson Kalma “was very unlikely popular with Russian visitors.”

“Russian tourists can easily go to places such as Turkey, Egypt, Thailand and Vietnam, which exceeds everything that North Korea can develop,” he said.

“Service standards are higher and you are not constantly supervised.”

Additional report by Yaroslav Kirukhin, I. M.M. Kristina Kuvas. Sali Nichols and Hervan’s schedules.