North Koreans swim and play at a beach resort touted as a boost for tourism
Seoul, South Korea (AP) – North Koreans swim, drove the water park slides and a newly opened Mammoth Beach Resort, The state media reported on Wednesday because the country has largely banned the entrance of foreign tourists.
Wonsan-Calm North Korea’s Eastern Coastal Tourism Zone, where it can host about 20,000 people, is at the center of the effort to increase tourism as a way to improve the country’s country’s economy of struggle. However, the observers, since the country will not fully reopen the boundaries and embrace Western tourists, the facility, which is the largest tourism complex in North Korea, is not clear.
The Official Korean Center News Agency reported that the Wonsan-Calma region started to serve on Tuesday and draws a large number of North Korean in a water park from open water swimming, slides and other attraction centers and various water activities in the region.
KCNA, a typical propaganda guided shipment, “the hearts of the guests, the working -style tourism culture during the Labor Party was full of overwhelming emotion because they felt the surprising new peaks of our culture.” He said.
Photographs published by the North Korean State Media, children with tubes immersed in the sea and swelling balls, colored swimsuits were teleported while the others sitting under red-white umbrellas.
Kim said that at the opening ceremony last week, the site would be recorded as one of the biggest achievements this year and that the government was the “proud first step” to realize the tourism development policy.
Since 2022, North Korea, Covid-19 pandemia and Reopen its limits stages. However, the country did not say whether it would continue international tourism and when it would continue.
Before the Pandemi, the Chinese group tours, which make up more than 90% of the visitors, stop, while there are questions about the ties between the two socialist neighbors. In February of this year, North Korea allowed a small group of groups International Tourists To visit the northeast border city Rason, to stop this tour program in less than a month.
North Korea has been accepting since February 2024 Russian tourists Expanding military cooperation between countries. However, the Russian government records, which are seen by South Korean experts, show a little more than 2,000 Russians, only 880 tourists, visited North Korea last year, a very small number to revive North Korean tourism.
The Primorsky region of Russia, which limits North Korea, said that last week will leave Wonsan-Kalma Resort on July 7 for an eight-day trip with the first Russian tourist group of Pyongyang.
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Associated Press writer Kim Tong-Hyung contributed to this report.
