North Korean authorities have tightened controls around the Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Zone in 2026, banning street vending near the showcase beach resort. Officials have also warned that anyone who tarnishes the resort’s international image could face expulsion from the city. The crackdown has cost many Wonsan residents their main income, and local officials have offered nothing in its place.
Wonsan’s city party and people’s committees issued the decree on Oct. 27, a Daily NK source in Kangwon province said. People’s committees are local government bodies that handle day-to-day administration under the direction of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea. The decree sharply restricts local access to the resort and bans private trading nearby. Officials justified the move as a way to bring order to the zone’s operations and protect its foreign currency earnings.
City party and people’s committee officials held a meeting before issuing the decree. They insisted the complex must serve as “an international resort that showcases the leadership achievements of the Supreme Dignity,” meaning Kim Jong Un. It is one of the Kim Jong Un regime’s signature construction projects, and the state poured massive investment into it. Officials also demanded that the poor living conditions around the resort stay hidden from foreign visitors.
After the decree came out, the Wonsan city social security department quickly relayed the new rules to local people. It passed them down through neighborhood watch units and neighborhood offices in each district of the city. The department serves as Wonsan’s police force under North Korea’s Ministry of Social Security. It framed the campaign as an effort to “root out disorder around the tourist zone.” Officers also warned that anyone who damages the resort’s international standing, even slightly, could face expulsion.
Wonsan Kalma crackdown leaves local vendors without a livelihood
Hardest hit are Wonsan residents who scraped by selling dried seafood and other goods near the zone. Since the decree took effect, some vendors keep moving their stalls around to dodge enforcement patrols. Others have given up trading altogether and turned to making goods at home, the source said.
City authorities, however, seem focused only on tidying up the area so outsiders never glimpse how poorly local people live. They have offered no relief to the families whose income vanished almost overnight because of the new controls.
“They built dozens of modern hotels and a water park on the Kalma Peninsula and promote it as a people’s paradise,” the source said. “But the people living nearby aren’t even allowed to go near it. Many are furious that officers block them from the glittering beachfront palaces built with our blood and sweat.”
The state relied on massive labor mobilizations to finish the resort, at one point sending 150,000 workers to the construction site in extreme cold. Every night, Wonsan residents now watch the resort’s bright lights from the outside. Meanwhile, they struggle to afford rice, whose prices have hit record highs, and coal to heat their homes this winter. Many of them say the contrast leaves them with a deep sense of deprivation, according to the source.
“The state only cares about the resort’s international standing, not how local people get by,” the source said. “That’s why you hear people complain, ‘What does that place, where only officials, rich people and foreigners enjoy luxury, have to do with us?’ Others say all they have left are bodies broken by hard labor and endless demands to hand over money to the state.”
North Korea invested heavily in the Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Zone as the centerpiece of its push to revive tourism. The sprawling resort complex stretches along the Myongsasimni coastline in Wonsan, Kangwon province. Construction wrapped up in June 2025, and the resort began welcoming tourists on July 1 that year. Daily NK previously reported the resort became a playground for the wealthy elite and remains out of reach for most North Koreans.
For now, the resort mainly serves domestic visitors and a very small number of Russian tourists. Some observers, however, see the latest push to clean up the surrounding area as a sign of bigger plans. They believe North Korea may be preparing to open the resort fully to foreign tourists.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
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