North Korea bans foreign tourists to newly opened beach resort
DPR Korea Tour, a website run by North Korea's tourism authorities, said in a notice Friday that the eastern coastal Wonsan-Kalma tourist complex 'is temporarily not receiving foreign tourists.' It gave no further details including why a ban was established or how long it would last.
North Korea says the complex can accommodate nearly 20,000 guests. The resort opened to domestic tourists 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.
Ban comes after visit by Russia's top diplomat
The announcement came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov flew to the complex to meet Kim and Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui for talks last weekend.
North Korea and Russia have sharply expanded military and other cooperation in recent years, with North Korea supplying weapons and troops to back Russia's war against Ukraine.
During a meeting with Choe, Lavrov promised to take steps to support Russian travel to the zone. 'I am sure that Russian tourists will be increasingly eager to come here,' he said.
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.
'The North Korean government is believed to have determined that it would face some negative consequences when it opens the site to foreigners,' said Oh Gyeong-seob, an analyst at Seoul's Korea Institute for National Unification.
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't likely be targeted.
Analyst Lee Sangkeun of Seoul's 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.
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