Lecture
Ski Slopes, Sandy Beaches, and the Politics of Tourism in Kim Jong Un's North Korea
- Date
- Friday 6 June 2025
- Time
- Address
-
Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden - Room
- 1.47
Abstract
Since the begining of the Kim Jong Un era, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) embarked on an expansion of its tourism development unlike this isolationist and autarkic country had ever tried before. Many believe this to be a coping mechanism undertaken by a heavily sanctioned autocratic regime desperately in need of foreign currency. Or is the tourism development much more than that? And if so, then why did North Korea unilaterally shutter its international tourism program for almost five years (seemingly in response to the COVID-19 outbreak)? Why is it only now--selectively--reopening its borders to foreign visitors? From the start of the Kim Jong Un era, where did the impetus for such tourism development come from? Where was the development going? Why the large-scale tourism-related projects in and around Wonsan and Samjiyon? What is tourism to the Kim regime? What can we glean from this tourism -- including its restricted, stuttering restart? And where is it headed now?
When contemplating tourism in North Korea, questions abound, and from the perspective of 'tourism politics', in this talk I attempt to answer some of these questions by providing a comprehensive picture of the decade-plus of 'socialist tourism' development under the Kim Jong Un regime, looking at the perceived designs, functionality, and instrumentality of this leader-led industry.
Biography
Dean J. Ouellette is Professor in the department of politics and diplomacy at Kyungnam University, Special Assistant to the University President, and managing editor of the journal Asian Perspective. He is former Vice Director of the university's Institute for Far Eastern Studies (2017~2024) and the institute's Director of International Affairs (2017~2020; 2023~2024). His academic research and journal publications cover aspects of North Korea's tourism and foreign relations, inter-Korean relations, and peacebuilding, inter alia, and include the book North Korean Tourism: Plans, Propaganda, People, Peace (IFES/Dooil Design 2017).