North Korea abruptly stops admitting foreign tourists to Kalma beach resort

North Korea has decided to temporarily stop receiving foreign tourists at its new beach resort located in the coastal city of Wonsan, Pyongyang’s state-run tourism promotion website showed Friday, without providing an explanation.

Less than a month after the North opened the Wonsan-Kalma Coastal Tourist Zone, boasting that it could accommodate nearly 20,000 guests, a notice has been posted on the website DPR Korea Tour that the resort is “temporarily not receiving foreign tourists.” DPR Korea Tour is operated by the North’s National Tourism Administration.

The reason for the decision and the effective date of the suspension were not posted on the website.

The announcement follows a recent report from 38 North, a US-based North Korea monitoring site, which claimed that the resort seems “undoubtedly open,” but the construction is “not quite finished yet.” The report was based on high-resolution satellite images taken around July 12, during Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s visit to the area to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui last week.

One of the largest buildings at the resort, a hotel, does not appear to be in use, the report noted.

Russian newspapers also recently reported on visits to the resort area by both journalists and tourists, focusing on the apparently empty beaches -- in contrast to the promotional images released by the North, which show stand-in North Korean vacationers and few foreign tourists.

According to reports by various news outlets, including the BBC and the Russian daily Izvestia, foreign tourists who visited the resort area said the price of a weeklong package tour ranged from $1,600 to $1,800 per person, which observers say is relatively expensive for the Russian middle class. In Russia, middle class workers typically earn between $670 and $2,000 per month, according to a report published last year by employee time-tracking app operator DeskCove.

The Wonsan-Kalma Coastal Tourist Zone, unveiled in a ceremony on June 24, is on North Korea’s eastern coast. It is believed to be aimed at attracting foreign tourists, though service for domestic guests was set to begin July 1, according to Pyongyang's state-run Korean Central News Agency.