Special Report: In Kim Jong Un's summer palace fun meets guns
Kim Jong Un
SEOUL (Reuters) - In the seaside city of Wonsan  North Korean families cook up barbecues on the beach  go fishing  and eat royal jelly flavor ice cream in the summer breeze. For  their leader Kim Jong Un  the resort  is a summer retreat  a future temple to tourism  and a good place to test missiles.
 He  is rebuilding the city of 360 000 people and wants to turn it into a billion-dollar tourist hotspot. At the same time   he  has launched nearly 40 missiles from the area  as part of  his  accelerated tests of North Korea’s nuclear deterrent.
“It may sound crazy to outsiders to fire missiles from a place  he  wants to develop economically  but that’s how  Kim Jong Un  runs  his  country ” said Lim Eul-chul  an expert on the North Korean economy at Kyungnam University in South Korea.
This combination of tourism and nuclear weapons is emblematic of Kim Jong Un’s strategy for survival  say researchers and people familiar with the project.
Tourism is one of a shrinking range of North Korean cash sources not targeted by United Nations sanctions  and the brochures advertise to foreign investors some $1.5 billion worth of potential ventures in the Wonsan Special Tourist Zone  an area covering more than 400 square km (150 square miles).  Kim  has already constructed a ski resort and a new airport there.
The projects that  Kim  is inviting investors to help build include a $7.3 million department store  a $197 million city center development  and a $123 million golf course (including a $62.5 million fee to lease the land).
Earlier this year  Kim  sent 16 of  his  officials to Spain to get ideas for Wonsan. They visited Marina d‘Or  one of the Mediterranean country’s biggest holiday complexes  and the Terra Mitica (Mythical Land) theme park in Benidorm. Terra Mitica caters to fans “of extreme sensations ” according to its website.
No major foreign partner has said they will back  Kim ’s Wonsan projects. The new airport  completed in 2015  has yet to open to international flights. America recently banned its citizens from visiting North Korea. International sanctions now ban all joint ventures with the state.
Even so  the plan is strategically vital for  Kim   say former North Korean diplomats. When  he  came to power in 2011   he  inherited a society officially run by the military but whose people survived largely on black market dealings. On paper  North Korea is a state-run economy; but in fact  seven in 10 North Koreans depend on private trade to live  according to Thae Yong Ho  North Korea’s former deputy ambassador in London  who staged a high-profile defection with his family in 2016.
 Kim  is perceived by outsiders as all powerful  but North Korea’s free marketeers make  him  more vulnerable than  he  seems  Thae told Reuters.  The leader  is looking for a way to harness both military and market forces to survive.
Nuclear weapons are one part of  his  answer – because  Kim  hopes they will cost less to maintain than North Korea’s conventional heavy weapons. Projects like Wonsan are the other part.  He  wants to cut the share of funding  he  gives to the military and allocate more money to the civilian economy.
 “Kim Jong Un  knows that  he  can only control society and guarantee  his  long leadership if  his  role and influence in the economy is increased ” said Thae.
Just next door to that beachfront property  the Daesong General Bureau – the body also known as “Office 39” that procures luxury goods for the  Kim  family – has its retreat.
All three entities are subject to international sanctions because of their role in funneling cash into  Kim ’s nuclear and missile programs.
For  Kim ’s security forces  though  Wonsan is about more than fun in the sun.
 Kim  brought  his  top military brass to Wonsan in 2014. On the white sandy beach of  his  palace compound   he  ordered  his  highest admirals to strip into bathing costumes and  as a test of their ability  swim 10 km around the bay  state TV showed. It filmed  him  at a desk on the sand  shaded by a white parasol.
SEOUL (Reuters) - In the seaside city of Wonsan  North Korean families cook up barbecues on the beach  go fishing  and eat royal jelly flavor ice cream in the summer breeze. For  [TGT]is a summer retreat  a future temple to tourism  and a good place to test missiles.
 [TGT]  is rebuilding the city of 360 000 people and wants to turn it into a billion-dollar tourist hotspot. At the same time   [TGT]  has launched nearly 40 missiles from the area  as part of  his  accelerated tests of North Korea’s nuclear deterrent.
“It may sound crazy to outsiders to fire missiles from a place  he  wants to develop economically  but that’s how  Kim Jong Un  runs  his  country ” said Lim Eul-chul  an expert on the North Korean economy at Kyungnam University in South Korea.
This combination of tourism and nuclear weapons is emblematic of Kim Jong Un’s strategy for survival  say researchers and people familiar with the project.
Tourism is one of a shrinking range of North Korean cash sources not targeted by United Nations sanctions  and the brochures advertise to foreign investors some $1.5 billion worth of potential ventures in the Wonsan Special Tourist Zone  an area covering more than 400 square km (150 square miles).  Kim  has already constructed a ski resort and a new airport there.
The projects that  Kim  is inviting investors to help build include a $7.3 million department store  a $197 million city center development  and a $123 million golf course (including a $62.5 million fee to lease the land).
Earlier this year  Kim  sent 16 of  his  officials to Spain to get ideas for Wonsan. They visited Marina d‘Or  one of the Mediterranean country’s biggest holiday complexes  and the Terra Mitica (Mythical Land) theme park in Benidorm. Terra Mitica caters to fans “of extreme sensations ” according to its website.
No major foreign partner has said they will back  Kim ’s Wonsan projects. The new airport  completed in 2015  has yet to open to international flights. America recently banned its citizens from visiting North Korea. International sanctions now ban all joint ventures with the state.
Even so  the plan is strategically vital for  Kim   say former North Korean diplomats. When  he  came to power in 2011   he  inherited a society officially run by the military but whose people survived largely on black market dealings. On paper  North Korea is a state-run economy; but in fact  seven in 10 North Koreans depend on private trade to live  according to Thae Yong Ho  North Korea’s former deputy ambassador in London  who staged a high-profile defection with his family in 2016.
 Kim  is perceived by outsiders as all powerful  but North Korea’s free marketeers make  him  more vulnerable than  he  seems  Thae told Reuters.  The leader  is looking for a way to harness both military and market forces to survive.
Nuclear weapons are one part of  his  answer – because  Kim  hopes they will cost less to maintain than North Korea’s conventional heavy weapons. Projects like Wonsan are the other part.  He  wants to cut the share of funding  he  gives to the military and allocate more money to the civilian economy.
 “Kim Jong Un  knows that  he  can only control society and guarantee  his  long leadership if  his  role and influence in the economy is increased ” said Thae.
Just next door to that beachfront property  the Daesong General Bureau – the body also known as “Office 39” that procures luxury goods for the  Kim  family – has its retreat.
All three entities are subject to international sanctions because of their role in funneling cash into  Kim ’s nuclear and missile programs.
For  Kim ’s security forces  though  Wonsan is about more than fun in the sun.
 Kim  brought  his  top military brass to Wonsan in 2014. On the white sandy beach of  his  palace compound   he  ordered  his  highest admirals to strip into bathing costumes and  as a test of their ability  swim 10 km around the bay  state TV showed. It filmed  him  at a desk on the sand  shaded by a white parasol.