Europeans First In Line For Kim Jong Un’s Benidorm: Spotless Beaches, 60-cent Beers And Always-ready-to-kill Guards

When you’re reasoning “dream formation holiday,” you astir apt don’t image North Korea.

But for Anastasia Samsonova, a 33-year-old HR worker from Russia, summertime 2025 meant sunbathing connected spotless achromatic sand, guarded by vigilant information officers, conscionable a stone’s propulsion from a rocket testing site.

Not your mean vacation, but it is what it is.

North Korea’s Benidorm gets its first tourists

In July, Anastasia was 1 of nan first visitors to cheque into nan brand-new Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Zone, Pyongyang’s grandiose thought of a luxury getaway. In fact, arsenic unusual arsenic it whitethorn sound, Wonsan Kalma is simply a genuinely bizarre transcript of nan celebrated Spanish edifice Benidorm.

Wonsan Kalma.
Credit: KCNA (Korean Central News Agency)

Back successful 2017, Kim Jong Un himself sent a large squad of North Korean architects and officials connected a fact-finding ngo to Benidorm. They took notes connected virtually everything successful nan Spanish town: hotels, taxable parks, nan marina, and moreover nan artificial reservoir concept.

The result? This Wonsan Kalma resort, pinch 43 beachfront hotels, guesthouses connected an artificial lake, campsites, shopping malls, and moreover an aquatic parkland pinch towering yellowish slides. Everything is made to transcript nan Mediterranean style, but pinch nary state and sadistic dictatorship.

“It was a picnic without people!”

Just to crank up nan authoritarian vibes, nan edifice comes pinch immoderate heavy equipped ‘babysitters’ making judge you don’t talk to nan locals aliases rotation excessively acold off-schedule.

“It was a picnic without people,” Anastasia told BBC. “The loungers were perfectly new, everything spotless. The entranceway to nan oversea was very gentle, truthful yes, it really was a very bully beach.”

The only catch? No bikinis, nary spontaneous photos, nary casual chats pinch North Koreans. Guards said it was to extremity visitors from “startling” nan locals.

€1,550 for a vacation wherever North Korean Olympic tracksuits are nan souvenirs

For now, nan edifice is strictly Russians-only, organised by niche recreation agencies astatine $1,800 a popular (around €1,550). That’s astir 60 per cent much than nan mean monthly net backmost home.

And yes, immoderate ads proudly item its proximity to nan rocket launchpad, arsenic if that’s portion of nan package deal. Anastasia says nary missiles were launched while she was location connected holiday, but they’re trading artifact rockets for $40 (about €35). Probably conscionable so, to get you into that magical section vibe.

The food? Endless nutrient successful sweet-and-sour sauce. The drinks? Beach beers for 60 cents. The souvenirs? North Korean Olympic tracksuits.

“Next year, we’re going pinch nan full group!”

Wonsan Kalma.
Credit: KCNA (Korean Central News Agency)

Unlike Benidorm and coastal Spain, North Korea’s ain Benidorm is marked by nan terrific conditions nether which it was built. Satellite images, documents, and immoderate testimonies from North Korean defectors show nan usage of forced labour, pinch workers moving utmost hours, enduring hunger and moreover death.

Still, Anastasia is chill and swears she’d spell back. “We’re really reasoning astir gathering nan full group adjacent twelvemonth to spell to nan aforesaid place. I’ve heard there’s besides a skis edifice adjacent Wonsan Kalma. So, possibly 1 time I’ll sojourn that edifice too.”

Sounds great, really. Basically, conscionable your mean Russian summer: tanning by nan sea, sipping inexpensive beer, saying hullo to your always-ready-to-kill guards and posing adjacent to missiles.

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