North Korea’s two largest ski resorts have begun preparing for domestic visitors this winter, according to NK News analysis of satellite imagery, despite ongoing coronavirus-related travel restrictions and leader Kim Jong Un’s recent warnings of “unprecedented” economic problems.

After beginning to cover their slopes with artificial snow last week, the Yangdok and Masikryong ski resorts could soon receive organized groups from exemplary factories and schools, as well as wealthy individual tourists with the necessary internal travel permissions. 

It is the second year in a row that the two resorts appear to be preparing for visitors without the possibility of earning foreign currency from overseas tourists, signaling the importance of domestic travel rewards for successful groups in the country’s socialist system. The development may also mean middle-class lifestyles endure despite food and other shortages. 

Besides ski resorts, a special slope-savvy military unit in Samjiyon tasked with protecting the “holy” Mount Paektu began spraying its private ski hill with artificial snow in mid-October.

RESORT PREPARATIONS

The two Planet Labs satellite imagery timelapse videos below show that both the Yangdok Hot Spring Resort and Masikryong Ski Resort started covering their slopes with artificial snow between Nov. 19 and 23 — around the same time as previous years.

Workers appear to be following a typical pattern seen in the past of spraying snow starting at the base of ski hills and slowly working upward over the course of several weeks, supplementing unpredictable natural snowfall.

State media has not reported in detail on skiing activities at either resort since the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020, but the state reportedly sponsored trips for hundreds of elderly war veterans over the last two summers. 

The Masikryong resort opened in 2013 as one of Kim Jong Un’s first major projects “for the people.” 

The Yangdok resort only opened to the public in Jan. 2020, around a week before North Korea closed its borders to prevent the spread of COVID-19.  

Meanwhile, though there is a ski hill at the edge of the newly rebuilt “utopian” town of Samjiyon near Mount Paektu, construction work on new hotels and tourist facilities at the base of Pegae Hill still appeared unfinished in recent images published in state media. 

Satellite imagery showed no signs of efforts to spray artificial snow on the hill, suggesting it might not open to tourists this year.

A small ski hill also opened in the city of Kanggye in 2018, but it does not appear to have or use artificial snow blowers. 

Last December, North Korean Cabinet Premier Kim Tok Hun announced plans to build yet another ski resort at Mount Kumgang near the inter-Korean border, though construction does not appear to have begun yet.

MILITARY SKI TEAM

The Korean People’s Army (KPA) has rewarded Unit 1045 with upgraded ski facilities and lodgings at their secluded slopes near Mount Paektu since Kim Jong Un paid them a public visit in late 2016, and it appears the unit has again been preparing for annual training in recent weeks. 

Planet Labs imagery shows evidence of artificial snow blowers covering the base of Unit 1045’s ski hill starting between Oct. 13 and 16, around the same time as the previous year. 

The DPRK leader was back in Samjiyon in the area surrounding the military base earlier this month, but state media did not reveal whether or not Kim visited the ski unit.

Edited by Arius Derr