North Korea is building and underwater hotel for tourists

Outside of Pyongyang, North Korea may not have regular indoor heating or a robust enough agricultural infrastructure to keep its people from going hungry for much of the year, but the capital Kim Jong Un is planning to add an underwater hotel to the list of attractions to accompany the theme park that was completed last year. Local media reports the development will include international exposition halls, a stadium as well as towers and other modern buildings.

No details have been revealed yet about the underwater hotel, but investment in leisure and tourist facilities seems to be becoming a hallmark of Kim Jong Un’s leadership despite claims that it is the last thing that the hungry people of North Korea need. Last year, World Food Program executive director Ertharin Cousin told reporters in Seoul that the viability of North Korea programs was being threatened due to a “critical” lack of funding.

The project will also include a “flower park, international meeting hall, exhibition and exposition hall, and stadium” on the Kalma Peninsula. However the underwater hotel sounds particularly dangerous as the few underwater hotels that exist in the world have been built in rich tourist destinations as a novelty and are known to be extremely difficult to build safely, for obvious reasons.

NK News reports that Leonid Petrov, a researcher at the Australian National University, highlights the contradictory nature of the development when North Korea has been arresting greater numbers of foreign visitors than ever before.

“Underwater hotels are the most suitable form of tourist accommodation for North Korea, said Petrov. “As a foreign tourist you won’t be able to escape. You will not be able to see anything that happens outside of your hotel room or sneak a photo from your window. Keeping foreign guests in aquariums is (therefore) a perfect Orwellian solution for isolating them from the locals while maximizing cash revenue.”

Former U.S. Army Judge and One Free Korea editor Joshua Stanton told NK News, “The last thing the hungry people of North Korea need is an underwater hotel that is, at best, years from seeing its first guest. North Korea is not a poor country, and hunger there is the direct consequence of Kim Jong Un’s choices.”

But amusement parks have played a major role in Kim’s platform, with the dear leader encouraging workers to work tirelessly to complete an amusement park before his wife Ri Sol-ju attended its opening in summer, 2012. After initially berating workers for being unproductive, last year at the inauguration of the water park Premier Pak Pong-ju told workers they should “glorify forever Kim Jong-un’s leadership exploits.”

Given the costly nature of underwater hotel projects, says NK News, it remains to be seen how North Korea will finance construction of the hotel at Wonsan. The use of tens of thousands of soldiers to build the recently completed Masikryong ski resort might provide the answer. Read more about the story here.