The development plan is reportedly part of a broader push by Pyongyang to boost North Korea`s tourism industry. Back in May, the state-run Korean Central News Agency released a series of photos of Kim visiting a construction site at Masik Pass, a snowy hill about 12 miles from Wonsan that is being developed into a ski resort, CNN reports.
The visit came less than a week after the town of Sinuiju, located on the North Korea-China border, opened to western tourists for the first time ever, AFP notes.
That the notoriously isolated country may open up to foreigners might not come as such a surprise. There are obvious economic benefits to expanding North Korea`s niche tourism industry, which according to AFP estimates attracts just 4,000 to 5,000 western travelers a year. In addition, Kim may be more positive towards the idea of western visitors than his rhetoric often leads to believe, for the Dear Leader is thought to have spent some of his early years at a posh boarding school in ski-haven Switzerland.
In fact, it was Kim`s father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, who first opened a ski resort in 1998 as a joint venture with the South at a time in which inter-Korean relations had begun to soften, the Wall Street Journal notes. The resort at Mount Kumgang closed in 2008, however, after a North Korean soldier fatally shot a South Korean tourist outside the complex.
Citing recently declassified statements Kim made during the 2007 Inter-Korea Summit, Joongang Ilbo speculates that the Kumgang resort could have inspired Kim to further develop the country`s tourism industry.
"Wonsan is a holiday destination," Kim reportedly told former South Korean president Roh Moo Hyun, adding that he planned to deindustrialize the area and close the town`s factories and shipyards.
While the document on the Wonsan development didn`t include a timetable for construction, unnamed sources told Joongang that the project is contingent upon foreign investment, with North Korea currently trying to woo $1 million from a company in Singapore.
More about:
