For the last few winters, select groups of North Korean students and workers hit the slopes of the country’s growing number of ski resorts, as did wealthier travelers and a small number of foreign tourists.

Now, satellite imagery shows that these resorts — and even a military ski training base in Samjiyon — are preparing for action this winter by laying down blankets of artificial snow. That’s despite North Korea’s ongoing economic woes and strict social measures meant to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Earlier this week, the country’s two largest ski resorts began to use blowers to cover their slopes with the fake snow, mirroring activities observed in years past just before accepting guests.

The Samjiyon military base was also covered in artificial snow last month following major construction to expand the base. In 2016, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watched a military unit ski downhill at this base, and its preparations in 2020 indicate that it remains an active and important aspect of North Korean military training.

SNOW WORRIES

North Korea’s first modern ski resort, called Masikryong, opened at the end of 2013 soon after Kim Jong Un came to power. A new competitor, the Yangdok Hot Springs and Ski Resort, was also built just 40 kilometers (25 miles) up the road in 2019.

Both the Masikryong and Yangdok resorts are now likely gearing up for groups of domestic visitors in the coming months. Just like this time last year, the main slopes at both facilities started to fill up with white spots in November Planet Labs satellite imagery, indicating the use of artificial snow blowers.

Last year, it took until the first week of December to completely cover the slopes in both places.

Ongoing COVID-19 protective measures and a mass labor mobilization set to end on Dec. 30 may affect the timing of their opening this year. But foreign tour guides told NK News that the country’s closed borders and lack of international tourists probably isn’t a factor in whether or not these sites open.

“They never expect high foreign numbers,” said Young Pioneer Tours tour manager Rowan Beard, referring to Masikryong. “It’s mostly focused on locals. We only arrange around five or so independent tourists there each year.”

Beard said that the resort was “fairly packed” with North Koreans during a visit in 2018, and that visitors were mostly workers and students who were apparently taken there as a “routine treat” for good performance.

“There are definitely well-off North Koreans there, as well,” he added, though he said they were fewer in number than the organized groups.

Simon Cockerell, general manager at Koryo Tours, agreed that “the vast majority” of visitors to Masikryong are North Koreans.

“I would think they are a combination of the middle classes and also those there on reward or incentive trips,” he said. “So, I’m not really surprised that they would be keeping it operational really, as it isn’t for foreigners specifically, after all, and never really has been.”

Though the Yangdok Hot Springs and Ski Resort has yet to host any foreign tour groups after opening at the end of last year, these organized groups and wealthier North Koreans are also likely set to hit its slopes soon.

That’s because Yangdok has stayed busy in recent months, hosting hundreds of elderly war veterans after a major conference in July, after at least partially shutting down in the early days of the pandemic.

North Korea still claims that not a single person in the country has been infected with COVID-19, but the government continues to tell its citizens that an outbreak could lead to the country’s demise. A mandatory mask-wearing policy and social distancing rules also remain in effect and appear to be enforced in most cases.

Meanwhile, artificial snow has yet to appear at a new ski resort in the center of what North Korea has called the “utopian” city of Samjiyon. The ski hill has been used in the past, but new hotels and other facilities are being built on site as part of “stage three” of an overhaul meant to entirely rebuild the region.

There is also a small ski hill in the city of Kanggye, but it appears to have relied solely on natural snow since it opened in 2018.

PIZZA, FRENCH FRIES, SHOOT!

It’s not only North Korean civilians who will likely be carving the country’s slopes this winter: The military will also probably practice skiing in “simulated conditions of an actual battle,” as state media once put it.

Planet labs imagery shows evidence of snow blowers being used at a ski hill on the military base near Samjiyon starting on Oct. 14 and continuing until natural snow appeared to fill in the gaps in early November.

The slopes belong to the Korean People’s Army (KPA) Unit 1045 — identified in images published by state media of Kim Jong Un’s visit in late Nov. 2016 to watch “skiing training of the mountain infantry battalion” stationed there.

Unit 1045’s activities have not been revealed in the years since, but major renovations to the base were carried out after Kim’s visit. According to Google Earth and Planet Labs satellite imagery, its facilities doubled in size between 2018 and 2019. Over two dozen new, small buildings — likely lodgings — were then built since Sept. 2019.

Notably, the U.S. and South Korea answered Kim’s visit by showing off their own skiing marines in joint military exercises held near the inter-Korean border at the end of 2017.

Edited by Kelly Kasulis