{"id":72815,"date":"2025-07-18T14:07:30","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T14:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/72815\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T14:07:30","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T14:07:30","slug":"north-korea-bans-foreign-tourists-to-newly-opened-beach-resort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/72815\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea bans foreign tourists to newly opened beach resort"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) \u2014 North Korea is banning the entry of foreign tourists to a recently opened mega beach resort<\/a>, a move that dims prospects for the complex that leader Kim Jong Un<\/a> hailed it as \u201cone of the greatest successes this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

DPR Korea Tour, a website run by North Korea\u2019s tourism authorities, said in a notice Friday that the eastern coastal Wonsan-Kalma tourist complex \u201cis temporarily not receiving foreign tourists.\u201d It gave no further details including why a ban was established or how long it would last. <\/p>\n

North Korea says the complex can accommodate nearly 20,000 guests. The resort opened to domestic tourists<\/a> July 1 before receiving a small group of Russian tourists last week. Observers expected North Korea to open the resort to Chinese tourists while largely blocking other international tourists. <\/p>\n

Ban comes after visit by Russia\u2019s top diplomat<\/p>\n

The announcement came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov flew to the complex<\/a> to meet Kim and Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui for talks last weekend. <\/p>\n

North Korea and Russia have sharply expanded military and other cooperation in recent years, with North Korea supplying weapons and troops to back Russia\u2019s war<\/a> against Ukraine. During a meeting with Choe, Lavrov promised to take steps to support Russian travel to the zone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am sure that Russian tourists will be increasingly eager to come here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But experts say North Korea likely decided to halt foreigner travels to the zone because of a newspaper article by a Russian reporter who travelled with Lavrov that implied North Koreans at the zone appeared to be mobilized by authorities and not real tourists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe North Korean government is believed to have determined that it would face some negative consequences when it opens the site to foreigners,\u201d said Oh Gyeong-seob, an analyst at Seoul\u2019s Korea Institute for National Unification. <\/p>\n

Oh said the ban would include Russians, but the North Korea-focused NK News website, citing tour groups specializing in North Korea trips, said Russians won\u2019t likely be targeted.<\/p>\n

Analyst Lee Sangkeun of Seoul\u2019s Institute for National Security Strategy said the ban could be associated with difficulties in recruiting Russian tourists because many would consider North Korea too far away and the trip too expensive. <\/p>\n

Ban likely won\u2019t remain for long<\/p>\n

Experts say North Korea must open the Wonsan-Kalma zone, the country\u2019s biggest tourist complex, to Russian and Chinese tourists, given what was likely a huge construction and operational expenditure from the country\u2019s tight budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf foreign tourists aren\u2019t allowed to the site, no Russian rubles, Chinese yuans and dollars won\u2019t come in. Then, North Korea can\u2019t break even and it has to shut down the resort,\u201d said Ahn Chan-il, head of the World Institute for North Korean Studies think tank in Seoul.<\/p>\n

Kim has said the site would be \u201cone of the greatest successes this year\u201d and \u201cthe proud first step\u201d in tourism development. North Korea\u2019s state media reports the Wonsan-Kalma site has been crowded with local tourists. <\/p>\n

The first group of 15 Russian tourists arrived in the resort July 11 after visiting Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, NK News reported earlier this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was magnificent. Everything is new, clean and stunning,\u201d Russian tourist Nina Svirida said in the report.<\/p>\n

North Korea has been slowly easing the curbs imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic and reopening its borders<\/a> in phases. But the country hasn\u2019t said if it would fully resume international tourism.<\/p>\n

Chinese group tours, which made up more than 90% of visitors before the pandemic, remain stalled. In February, North Korea allowed a small group of international tourists<\/a> to visit the northeastern city of Rason, only to stop the program in less than a month. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEOUL, South Korea (AP) \u2014 North Korea is banning the entry of foreign tourists to a recently opened…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":72816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[13214,57,36832,24529,50953,50,50952,24240,3659,80,3657,31131,30628,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-72815","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-asia-pacific","9":"tag-general-news","10":"tag-hospitality-and-leisure-industry","11":"tag-kim-jong-un","12":"tag-lee-sangkeun","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-nina-svirida","15":"tag-north-korea","16":"tag-north-korea-government","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","19":"tag-sergey-lavrov","20":"tag-travel-and-tourism","21":"tag-world","22":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114874629734245292","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}