This is part two of a two-part series examining goings-on around North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s luxury compound in Wonsan. Read part one here.

Imagine you’re on the starting block staring out at an Olympic-sized swimming pool, on the ocean. Look up, there are two towering figure-8 waterslides. Behind, a multi-story lounge.

Now look around. You’re at Kim Jong Un’s exclusive Wonsan villa in August last year.

This was the scene for around a month in 2019 just after Kim’s likely visit to his new Hodo villa in late July, when the 80-meter-long pool boat made a rare trip out from its spot at the central Wonsan docks.

The giant luxury craft, described by one witness in the past as bewilderingly large and capable of hosting extravagant gatherings, is now undergoing a rebuild or decommissioning in central Wonsan, NK Pro analysis of satellite imagery reveals.

It was also used at a nearby island off Wonsan’s Kalma peninsula coast in summer and fall of 2018 — a spot NK Pro detailed in previous reports this week (here and here) that has been the frequent host of Kim’s other leisure boats at times that the North Korean leader was known to be in town. 

It is possible that, given the pattern of usage over the last two years, it is undergoing work to prepare for its next outing to the island, to Kim’s Wonsan villa, or perhaps a first-time voyage to his new secluded luxury villa up the coast.

Olympic-sized job

Italian pizza chef Ermanno Furlanis wrote about witnessing the craft in 1997 from a distance on his way to cook for former DPRK leader Kim Jong Il on one of the other leisure boats described in NK Pro’s other reports this week.

He said it looked like “a semi-mobile, floating amusement park … which was able to anchor in different places every day.”

“It was made up of two waterslides which dropped down into a swimming pool. On the other side of the pool there was a two-storey building with an observation deck on the roof.”

“I doubt if even Federico Fellini could have concocted something of this magnitude,” he wrote, adding that officials with him tried to “physically, though partly in jest, turn our heads aside with their hands” to prevent them from looking too closely.

It is likely that it has been used occasionally in the decades since, but NK Pro could only detect three occasions in commercially-available satellite imagery from the last two decades, and all since 2018, when it left its position outside the Wonsan docks — though daily imagery only became available since around 2016.

The Wonsan central storage docks where Kim’s leisure boats have been stored since the beginning of 2020 and where the waterslide boat went in for work at the end of March | Images: Planet Labs

Around two weeks ago, this boat appeared to go in for repairs at the docks to remove or replace the pool’s flooring, and has in recent days had its multi-story structure demolished, according to both daily medium-resolution and high-resolution satellite imagery.

The imagery shows that it was moved in the last days of March this year from its regular spot outside the docks to an inner area connected to indoor garages and parallel to a loading dock.

Activity at the loading dock then appeared to increase around the middle of this month, and the pool floor was removed gradually between April 14 and 24, according to Planet Labs daily imagery.

A high-resolution Planet image taken on April 24 shows that the multi-story structure at the opposite end of the double waterslides has been removed, while a subsequent medium-resolution shot from April 28 showed that the previously darkened area had turned white again.

This could mean that work has already started to replace it, or that it is being repurposed for another reason. 

NK Pro is watching the situation to determine if upgrades are being made on the ship — likely a controversial move given Kim Jong Un’s pleas for citizens to endure economic difficulties under sanctions.

It would also hold potential implications towards determining Kim’s status as the world continues to speculate over his health. He has not appeared publicly since April 11.

There is competing evidence to suggest it could either be under repair in order to be used by Kim Jong Un or close associates in the coming weeks or months, or that it is being taken out of service. 

An example of a repair situation was in May 2017 when, according to Planet Labs daily imagery, the 55-meter leisure boat went into the same dock warehouse area for under a week before journeying to the Hodo villa that August.

This craft has since the start of this month appeared docked at Kim’s Wonsan villa beach, replacing one previously occupying the spot for decades.

But later in 2017, a 60-meter leisure boat that was docked at the Wonsan villa for years, without going into a storage cover there as frequently as the other favored one, was taken to the Wonsan docks in mid-October that year, deconstructed, and has not been seen since.

If the waterslide boat is indeed now seeing upgrades, it would likely be in preparation for what appears to be annual outings for the ship around the same time in recent years that coincide with Kim’s visits to the area.

Kim and the megaship in recent years

In 2019, Kim Jong Un’s biggest pool boat made only one extended journey out of its base at the Wonsan dock, with one brief return in the middle, and it is likely he used it during that time.

Planet imagery shows that between July 27 and August 2, the craft was towed to just beyond a protective border of the North Korean leader’s main Wonsan villa beach, and by two days later it was stationed at the north dock there.

Strangely, it returned briefly back to the central docks from August 29 until appearing once again at the Wonsan villa by September 3, and then was back at the dock by the 12th, with imagery missing over the intervening days.

There is evidence that Kim Jong Un would have been present at his Wonsan villa for parts of this period, such as when he led a missile test from the area, likely the Kalma peninsula, on July 31, just as the waterslide boat was first taken there.

Kim’s main Wonsan villa in summer 2019 | Images: Planet Labs

He led three other missile tests either from Wonsan or elsewhere along the east coast in the month of August and inspected the nearby Yangdok Hot Springs at the end of the month too, only being reported in state media outside the area for two missile tests before August 10. He also took a week-long break in appearances between the Yangdok visit and a meeting in Pyongyang. 

And just as Kim Jong Un’s other leisure boat made its way to a secluded beach in the same week in July in both 2018 and 2019 — last year to where a villa complex was newly built since the previous visit — the waterslide boat came out of storage at the same time both years as well.

In 2018, however, it arrived by itself not at Kim’s villa but rather at Tae island between July 31 and August 2, and returned back to the Wonsan docks between August 5 and 11, where it stayed until another extended excursion back to Tae in late October.

During this first period from early August, Kim Jong Un, having made traditional appearances in Pyongyang on July 26 to mark the Day of Victory in the Great Fatherland Liberation War (the holiday being the following day), appeared in Pyongyang again in an August 4 report and on the west coast in two reports through August 8. 

The giant waterslide boat made two trips to Tae island off the Kalma coast in 2018 | Images: Planet Labs

It is typical for state media to sometimes report on inspections days later, though it is also possible Kim was not in Wonsan for this particular outing of the waterslide boat.

But the DPRK leader was surely at his Wonsan villa, and possibly on the Olympic-sized (50-meter) pool boat, when it came back out to Tae island for a month in the fall of 2018.

It left the Wonsan docks for Tae between October 22 and 24 and did not return until between November 20-22. The 50-meter leisure boat was also seen anchored next to the waterslide boat from October 25-27 through November 18-19, according to the Planet Labs imagery.

Kim enjoyed a long break in appearances from October 11-30, having visited the northern town of Samjiyon sometime in that period, but, significantly, was reported on November 1 to have inspected the Wonsan-Kalma beach resort and Yangdok in the days prior as well. 

He then went back to Pyongyang for a summit with the visiting Cuban president from November 4-6 before an over-a-week-long break in public appearances, but was not reported in the Wonsan area again until December 1.

Other small boats or floating platforms indicating visitors may have been present only appeared in the vicinity at Tae island in the October 24 and 31 images, though it is quite possible there was activity at other times.

Whether this mega waterpark-on-water will be ready for another potential Kim Jong Un gathering this summer or whether it has made its final voyage is yet to be seen, but as host to decades of North Korean elite parties, it is sure to be the subject of scrutiny for some time to come.

Edited by Oliver Hotham and James Fretwell