Wonsan-Kalma Coastal Tourist Zone

The Wonsan-Kalma Coastal Tourist Zone is the most ambitious tourism development in North Korean history — a 2.5-kilometre stretch of beach on the Kalma Peninsula backed by roughly 400 buildings including high-rise hotels, villas, a water park, a concert hall, a department store, and multiple restaurants. The zone was designed to accommodate up to 20,000 guests simultaneously and opened in June 2025.

Its first foreign visitors were Russian tour groups in summer 2025. Whether and when it will open to Western visitors depends entirely on North Korean government policy, which remains unpredictable. The zone represents a significant bet by the North Korean leadership on tourism as an economic strategy — though the scale of the investment and the controlled conditions of any visit make it more a showcase than a conventional tourist destination.

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The Wonsan-Kalma zone was under construction for over a decade and became a recurring subject in North Korea satellite imagery analysis — analysts tracking its progress could watch hundreds of buildings appear, a water park take shape, and a runway extend, all in a country that was simultaneously under heavy international sanctions. Kim Jong Un visited the site repeatedly and called its completion a national priority. It opened on June 24, 2025, with Russian tourists as its first foreign visitors.