As the year draws to a close, North Korea's communist regime is prominently highlighting the Wonsan Kalma Tourist Area in its official calendars, signaling a significant push to promote tourism to this beach resort in the coming year.
The calendars, which are also targeted at Chinese tourists, suggest a strategic effort to attract international visitors to the region.
According to Breitbart, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has dedicated nearly a decade to transforming the Wonsan beach area into a premier tourist destination. This development is largely inaccessible to the majority of North Korea's impoverished citizens and is intended to bolster the nation's struggling economy.
The construction of the Wonsan Kalma Tourist Area faced delays due to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, which strained relations between China and North Korea, allowing Russia to step in. The resort finally opened to visitors this summer, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov among its first notable guests.
The South China Morning Post reports that the 2026 North Korean government calendar for Chinese tourists features enticing images of Wonsan's newly constructed hotels and resort areas, as well as its beach. The Post, citing Japan's Kyodo News, notes that the calendar includes aerial photos of the beach and nearby high-rise buildings, presumably hotels.
This promotional effort underscores North Korea's intention to attract tourists and generate much-needed foreign currency.
Travel and Tour World describes Wonsan as a "scenic city on the countrys east coast," appealing to those seeking a beachside escape in North Korea, particularly in 2026, when the Pyongyang International Marathon is set to return. The magazine highlights that China has long been the largest source of tourists to North Korea and remains a crucial market for the country's post-pandemic tourism recovery. The Pyongyang marathon is scheduled for April 6, further enhancing the appeal of visiting North Korea.
Wonsan also appears on calendars published by the North Korean regime for its elite officials. NK Insider reports that North Korea produces multiple calendars annually, both for domestic use and for sympathetic foreigners, serving as "a state propaganda tool that signals the intentions of the Party and its leader" for the upcoming year. This year's calendars prominently feature Wonsan, along with the nation's intercontinental ballistic missiles and Mount Paektu, a volcano revered in the communist worship of the Kim family.
NK Insider assesses that the new calendars indicate Kim Jong-un's priorities for 2026, which include strengthening military power and nuclear capabilities, reinforcing the legitimacy of the three-generation succession, and earning foreign currency through international tourism. The use of images of Wonsan reflects the regime's strategy to attract foreign tourists and secure hard currency, with tourism serving as a means of funding the regime and sustaining the system.
North Korea remains one of the world's most repressive communist regimes, compelling its citizens to revere dictator Kim Jong-un and his family or face internment in state labor camps for generations. The songbun system divides society based on loyalty to the Kim family, with those deemed "undesirable" facing severe punishment. The United Nations has confirmed that Pyongyang continues to deny most North Koreans their civil liberties, maintaining a barely functional state where many struggle to survive and lack access to adequate healthcare.
Similar to the communist government of Cuba, Kim Jong-un's regime has invested minimally in the welfare of its citizens, opting instead to allocate substantial resources to its illicit nuclear weapons program. Kim has expressed his intention to make tourism a primary industry in the country, expanding beyond traditional "red tourism" by elderly Chinese communists to more conventional activities. In addition to the Masikryong Ski Resort, which opened in 2014, Kim announced plans to develop a beachside retreat in Wonsan in 2013. Construction began in earnest in 2018, a year after the United States banned its citizens from visiting North Korea following the tragic death of American tourist Otto Warmbier.
At the time, China remained North Korea's closest ally, and the state-run Chinese Xinhua News Agency reported favorably on the Wonsan project. North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) relayed Xinhua's report, stating, "We could know that progress is being made in all fields of the DPRK [Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea] on the way to Wonsan, a coastal city of this country." Xinhua described Wonsan's "beautiful beach scenery" and characterized the project as "world-class."
South Korean media reported that Kim was pressuring the Chinese government to invest in the project to expedite its completion, though it remains unclear if significant Chinese financing was secured. By the following year, reports from within North Korea indicated that Kim had made the Wonsan resort a major government priority. The website 38 North, which specializes in North Korean issues, reported extensive construction activity in the region, supported by satellite evidence. Radio Free Asia (RFA) also reported discontent among North Koreans, who criticized the regime for imposing a "construction" tax and forcing men into construction jobs to complete the project.
The Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic significantly impacted the project, prompting Kim to shift his geopolitical focus from China to Russia amid what he described as the country's "worst-ever situation." Rumors of Kim's serious illness and weight loss emerged, along with reports of a rift between Kim and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. As North Korea closed its borders to foreign entry, Wonsan faded from international attention.
In August 2024, Kim lifted the ban on foreigners and resumed tourism, and less than a year later, the Wonsan resort opened to the public. In a sign of shifting political dynamics, the first prominent foreign visitor to the site was Lavrov, the Russian diplomat. During his visit, Lavrov expressed hope that the resort would be popular with both local citizens and Russians, describing it as a "good tourist attraction."
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