North Korea’s Benidorm-Style Resort welcomes first Russian tourists

A new shore at the Beach in North Korea, human rights groups for violent treatment of construction workers, accepted the first group of Russian tourists this week.

The Wonsan Kalma Resort opened by a grand ceremany last month By Leader in North Korea, Kim Jong UN, who prompts it as a “world-class tourist and cultural destination”.

Details how this resort is built covered with secretly in a country mainly closed outside the world.

The BBC Verify has studied satellite visualization, earning internal planning documents planned and experts and former human rights abuses to site development.

Kim Jong un un spent on most of his youths in WONSAN, and before the construction of the new city resort is a popular holiday destination.

“When the Wonsan tourist site was originally planned … The idea was to attract around a million tourists in the first place,” Ri Jong Ho, a Senior North Korea was involved in the early resort planning and declining 2014.

“The goal is to open North Korea a little.”

In 2017, a year before construction began, Kim sent a delegation to a mission searching Spain in Spain, where the team was flowing into the Benidats.

The delegation of North Korea “includes high-ranked politicians and many architects who take many notes,” Maias Perez recalls a theme theme and a marina.

A Brochure in North Korea with a resort map has 43 hotels identified in front of the beach, as well as tire houses in an artificial lake, and camping sites.

We have paired these locations with high-resolution satellite imagery, although we cannot testify when they are done.

An aquatic park, complete with flattened yellow water slides, set up from the beach.

In addition to the north, there is a quarter of leisure that includes buildings recognized by the plan as a theater, recreation and healing centers, and cinema.

Beginning in the early 2018, satellite images taken over 18 months revealed by many buildings grown along the 4km (2.5 mile) weight of the beach.

By the end of 2018, about 80% of the resort completed, according to the research made by satellite imagination company, satellite analytics, based in South Korea.

However, after this effort to build the whirlwind, working on the site then appears to stop.

This powerful construction enthusiasm brings out the concerns of treating those who work on site.

UN highlighted a system of compulsory work used in North Korea, especially “Shock Brigades” where workers often face violent situations, long hours, and insufficient payments.

James Heenan in the UN Human Rights Office of Seoul says “There are reports built the resort using their called Shock Bridades”.

“We also see reports that people work 24 hours at the end to finish this thing, as a shock brigade to me.”

BBC talks to a North Korean who served and finally conducted Shock Bridades.

Even if Chung Hui – who later refused – not involved in the construction of Wonsan Resort, he recalled the fierce conditions of the brigades he kept.

“The principle behind it (brigades) is that no matter what, you need to complete the task, even if you spend your life,” he said.

“I saw a lot of women under a lot of physical strain and eating bad that their seasons stopped completely.”

Kang Gyuri, who worked in Wonsan before fleeing South Korea in 2023, says his cousin volunteered in Pyongyang in Pyongyang, provided by the citizens trusted in the regime.

“He couldn’t sleep. They (nothing) give him to eat,” he said.

“Facilities are not properly organized, some people die only while working and they (the authorities) do not accept responsibility if they fall and die.”

Ms. said to the WONSAN residents who are expelled from their homes while the resort project has been extended, often free of charge.

Although Ms Kang’s not specific experience, the BBC knows the satellite analysis of analysis of buildings near the resort. In their place, see more of the tower blocks.

“They just broke everything and build new, especially when in a great location,” Kang said.

“The problem is, no matter how unfair, people do not speak or protest.”

The BBC reaches North Korea officials for comment.

North Korea is about to be completely closed by foreign visitors with some controlled tours allowed to visit the country in recent years.

Wonsan calm saw not only as an essential role in changing the covered fate of the country, but also a way of strengthening its relationships Military Support For the War in Moscow in Ukraine.

According to the first planning documents found at the BBC Verify, the initial intention is to attract more than one million visitors, which foreign tourists are preceded from China and Russia.

We scan the areas of Chinese tourist agency and Russia for any lists that promote the journeys in the new resort.

None of the Chinese agencies we investigate are WONSAN advertising trips. In Russia, we know three agencies offer trips that include WINSAN calm.

We call one of the Russian agencies in the early July an interested customer in a week before the first scheduled leave 7 in July and told that it attracts 12 people from Russia.

The week’s travel in North Korea, including three days of WONSAN resort, worth $ 1,800 (£ 1,300) – that’s 60% more than the average monthly wages in Russia.

Two additional trips are scheduled for August, according to this tour operator.

We contacted other agencies offering same packages on the tour, but they refused to reveal how many signed.

Andrei Lankov, an expert in Russian-North Korea relations with Kookmin University in Seoul, said you are not really famous for Russian visitors “.

“Russian tourists can easily go to places like Turkey, Egypt, Thailand and Vietnam, which is more than all North Korea can improve,” he said.

“Service patterns are higher and have not been placed in constant supervision.”

Yaroslava Kiryukhina, Yi Ma and Cristina Cuevas added. Sally Nicholls and Erwan Rivault graphics.