Kim Jong Un's envoy asked President Trump to support tourism development — including casinos — in the coastal North Korean city of Wonsan and the nearby ski resort of Masik Pass, according to South Korea's Dong-a Ilbo (link in Korean) https://t.co/uNunxvCKNHpic.twitter.com/WF0rKEdVZj
What did Lester Holt expect them to do? He is on a choreographed tour of the Masik Ski Resort that the Kim regime has been heavily marketing. The regime clearly wants this resort to be part of a future tour scheme to bring in foreign currency and NBC News is giving them free advertising:
NBC News’ Lester Holt arrived in North Korea over the weekend, broadcasting a segment from a ski resort that will soon host athletes from both North and South Korea training for the upcoming winter Olympics.
Holt is catching some flack for a statement he made during one report that aired on Monday. “We have been treated with respect here,” Holt said.
North Korea notoriously keeps a strict lid on press inside the country, and it’s likely Holt’s broadcast was subject to tight rules and restrictions. Previous reports, like this one from VICE, have noted how certain elements of their trip seemed choreographed.
Holt even says during his broadcast that the ski resort “certainly a part [North Korea] would like us to see.”
The NBC team flew into the country from Beijing, China on North Korea’s state airline, Holt said. The security check at the airport in North Korea was so stringent that they checked novels people brought along to read, and even one crew member’s toothbrush. [Business Insider]
This combined photo carried by a North Korean state propaganda site, DPRK Today, on Jan. 22, 2018, shows Masikryong Ski Resort on the North’s east coast. Last week, South and North Korea agreed to conduct joint training for skiers there before the opening of the Feb. 9-25 PyeongChang Winter Olympics in the South. (Yonhap)
It is probably not a good business model for an open ski resort to have more employees than guests, but then again this is North Korea where such logic does not apply:
The Dome Cafe at Masikryong Ski Resort has a fake green grass floor and wicker chairs for skiers to enjoy refreshments in
When a photographer took a trip to one of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s pet projects – built to bring in thousands of foreign tourists to the country – he discovered a sparkling clean ski resort… with barely another person or drop of snow in sight.
The communist enclave’s one and only ski destination, on top of Taehwa Peak, boasts a hotel with wood cabin style rooms, complimentary toiletries, and spa facilities and 110 kilometres (70 miles) of multi-level slopes.
However, photographer Aram Pan, from Singapore, who took the photos while on his fourth trip to North Korea from 16-20 October, did not find any other tourists to mingle with.
‘I saw one western tourist on a “private tour” at the Ski resort. I’m not sure who he was. I didn’t ask,’ Mr Pan told Daily Mail Australia. [Daily Mail]
You can view a whole bunch of pictures of the ski resort at the link.
