When he isn’t busy ordering the execution of relatives, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un spends his time and money building lavish new leisure facilities including a new water park, an amusement park, and a horse riding club. And in 2014, the country will get its first ski resort with the opening of Masik Pass.
According to this report from the Guardian, Kim visited the nearly finished resort in mid December and ordered that the opening ceremony be held at the “earliest possible date.”
Back in August, Switzerland refused to supply North Korea with ski lifts, but that didn’t stop Kim from attaining the machinery and equipment needed to open the resort, though experts and journalists are questioning how the country was able to gain snowmobiles, snow ploughs, and snow blowers. The property has 10 ski courses comprising 110 kilometers of multi-level ski runs, a hotel, heliport, and cable cars.
At least one international tour operator is already taking bookings for ski trips to the resort, offering four night packages from Beijing for roughly £1,200.
