Nearly all communist states tended to have a “main construction project,” an impressive undertaking where, if the newspapers were to be believed, the workers' enthusiasm for labor produced amazing feats and whose eventual completion would bring an era of unparalleled prosperity.

North Korea is no exception. In the past, such projects tended to be power stations, steel mills and mountain railways, but nowadays the North Korean public is told that the nation’s major achievement is a luxury ski resort being built with great efforts at the Masik pass.