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North Korea’s newly constructed Munsu Water Park and Mirim Riding Club are “burdensome to the people,” and are merely “places for select cadres to enjoy themselves,” North Korean defectors claim.
North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun yesterday published images of Kim Jong Eun taking a tour of the Mirim Riding Club. The recently built children’s hospital and amusement park facilities were touted as achievements of Kim Jong Eun and the Worker’s Party.
In the two-page spread, Kim was quoted as saying, “Facilities to serve the public like the Okryu Children’s Hospital, the Ryugyong Dental Hostpital, the Munsu Water Park and the Mirim Riding Club have been constructed this year. It is the decision of the Party that more construction for the people will be carried out in future.”
Bak Keum Chol (assumed name), a new arrival to the South who served in North Korea’s military, believes that “The water park is nothing more than a construction project aimed at the high-ranking, wealthy cadres of Pyongyang. Party cadres looking to spend a lot of money can go there, but for everyday people, enjoying a water park is unthinkable.”
Choi Eun Mo (assumed name), another defector who entered South Korea last year, added that, “While some will be able to visit the riding club, it’s located far from the center of Pyongyang. Those with no means of transport while find it difficult to get there.”
“In the future, field trips will be offered to ‘ideal’ citizens from each work unit. In that way, systemic propaganda will continue. Yet even in these circumstances, the invitees will have to front the cost of borrowing a vehicle on their own, and have to be issued a travel permit. They will also have to come up with money to pay for fuel, so I doubt there will be that many visitors,” he explained.
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