Gliding through pristine, untouched mountain tracks, Olga Shpalok said she “achieved 100% satisfaction.”
After a full day of skiing, the Russian designer from Vladivostok visited his hotel’s well-equipped spa and sauna.
“They said it was very difficult to enter the country. “But fate smiled on us,” he said.
Shpalok was part of the first group of foreign tourists to visit North Korea since it closed its borders at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.
In early February, he traveled to the country with 100 other Russian tourists on a four-day ski trip summed up by the Russian embassy as “Pyongyang is opening its doors.”
More than 200 Russian tourists have visited North Korea so far this year on three trips in February and March. His interviews and accounts provide a rare insight into life under Kim Jong-un’s regime.
Russian tourists closely monitored by government “ministers” who restrict what they can see and where they can go have described spending time at luxury ski resorts that are otherwise empty. Some said they felt deeply disturbed by the poverty and total control they witnessed.
Russia’s access to a pariah state is no coincidence. This comes at a time when the two countries are rapprochementing at an unprecedented pace, triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
North Korea has become Russia’s largest supplier of weapons, artillery shells, missiles and other equipment for Moscow’s ongoing war. In response, Russia appears to be sending food, raw materials and parts used in weapons production to North Korea, bypassing international sanctions imposed on the country.
Relating to: Professional snowboarders head to North Korea to test Kim Jong-un’s new ski resort
Russian tourist groups visiting North Korea show how Moscow can help Pyongyang. Before the pandemic, an estimated 5,000 Westerners visited North Korea each year on expensive tours, but since Covid-19 the borders have been sealed.
Faced with a food crisis reportedly triggered by ever-tightening international sanctions and pandemic lockdowns, any currency would be a welcome addition to Pyongyang’s cash-strapped coffers.
“The fact that North Korea allows entry to Russian tourists but continues to reject calls from humanitarian organizations pleading for entry is a telling reflection of the regime’s priorities,” said Hanna Song of the North Korean Human Rights Database Center in Seoul.
Group tours, first announced by various Russian tourism agencies in January, cost $750 (£600). This includes round-trip airfare to Pyongyang, North Korea’s only international airport in the capital. Also included was a domestic flight to a ski resort on North Korea’s east coast, hotel accommodation and meals.
Other expenses, including a $40 daily ski pass, souvenirs, and alcohol and cigarettes, were paid out-of-pocket in cash.
Tours begin with a two-hour flight by North Korean state-owned Air Koryo airlines from Vladivostok in Russia’s far east to Pyongyang. It consists of an obsolete fleet of mostly Russian-made Tu-154 aircraft.
“When I got on the plane, I wondered if we were going to make it,” recalled Alexandra Daniyelko, a public relations manager from Moscow who attended one of the tours.
Upon arrival in Pyongyang, Russian tourists visited the central Kim Il-sung Square, bowed to the bronze statues of late leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il on Mansu Hill, and attended a youth music performance at the Mangyongdae Children’s Palace. Members of communist youth groups performed patriotic music and dance performances.
These carefully staged demonstrations are traditionally filled with government propaganda aimed at instilling in North Koreans national pride and loyalty to Kim’s family, which has ruled brutally since taking power in 1948.
Describing the performance, Daniyelko said, “I cried for the naivety, kindness and talent of these children.”
Another Russian tourist described the children as “perfectly disciplined and obedient” and said that local caregivers confiscated the chocolates that some Russian tourists brought for the children.
But for most of the trip participants, the holiday began on the second day, when the tourists boarded a domestic flight to the seaside town of Wonsan, near the Masikryong ski resort.
The facility is one of several large-scale construction projects built on Kim’s orders in recent years, thought to cost £24 million. Guests are taken to the ski slopes in old Austrian-made gondolas imported from China.
Before the facility’s opening in 2014, Kim, who does not ski, was photographed smoking in a lift chair.
Russian tourists were told they would stay in a “five-star resort in the style of the Swiss Alps” built on the orders of Kim, who was also studying in Switzerland.
Images published on Instagram show lavish hotel rooms, a modern swimming pool, sauna, massage area and hair salon.
“There were no people on the main slopes, which was perfect,” said Yekaterina Kolomeetsa, a travel blogger from Vladivostok.
Considering that there are only 5,500 skiers in a population of 24 million, it is not surprising that the ski slopes are empty.
Despite North Korea’s efforts to present a highly curated image of their country, some Russian tourists said they felt uncomfortable there.
“You could feel the despair and constant control in the country throughout the entire journey,” Shpalok said. While riding a bus with other tourists in Pyongyang, he said he rarely saw cars or people on the roads. “We asked our guides where everyone was. “They told us people were happy in their jobs.”
Tourists were strictly prohibited from filming ordinary houses or people, and they could not go for a walk alone. Several people Shpalok interviewed appeared “short and hungry,” while some children were “barely dressed” despite the cold.
Another Russian tourist, Yulia Mishkova, said the trip was worth it for those “looking for a dose of nonsense.”
“I feel sorry for the North Koreans who are afraid,” Mishkova said, adding that it was hard to ignore the fact that a daily ski pass costs more than the average monthly salary. “I will not go again for moral and ethical reasons.”
Still, both countries seem to have big plans for the future. North Korea is also building another mass ski resort for Russian tourists, consisting of 17 hotels, 37 guesthouses and 29 shops, according to a report by the government of Primorsky Krai, located in Russia’s far east, bordering the two countries.
Tatyana Markova, a representative of the Vostok Intur travel agency, said that two hiking trips to North Korea are already planned for holidays in Russia in May.
“This is just the beginning,” read a new ad promoting their May tour to North Korea. “Don’t forget to book your place now!”