North Korean state propaganda is promoting another new beach facility on the east coast this week to improve “the people’s wellbeing,” using a site where the DPRK military previously carried out live-fire artillery drills, NK News analysis shows.

The Jasan Bathing Beach reportedly officially opened on July 23 to a crowd of a couple hundred locals, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and state TV reported Thursday, stating it is “another cultural and emotional life base for working people, youth and students to enjoy socialist civilization to their heart’s content.”

The site, located in “picturesque” Jasan-ri of Thongchon County in Kangwon Province, hosted mortar drills in April 2020 and other live-fire exercises in the past. The “natural monument” Kuk Islet off the coast, used as the target at the time, now serves as a scenic centerpiece for beachgoers.

It’s also located next to an old elite vacation home village and the Kangwon Province Air Club — a facility possibly related to nurturing future military drone pilots. 

Planet Labs satellite imagery shows construction on the facility’s few permanent structures began in Aug. 2024, but that the main building at the center was demolished in May this year and then recently rebuilt.

It is not the first beach doubling as a leisure spot and military launch site: The Wonsan Kalma mega beach resort up the coast that just opened this month also frequently hosted missile tests and large-scale artillery drills prior to the resort’s construction starting in 2018. 

North Korea may continue to use the new Jasan beach facility for military training in the future, as Kim used a small beach on the west coast in Nampho that is popular with swimmers in summer for a cruise missile test in Feb. 2025.

The DPRK leader appears to favor beaches as top sites for missile launches, conducting short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) tests at one near Jasan-ri to the north in May 2024 and May 2025, and even often launching from luxury hotels and his own private facilities at his numerous coastal palaces.

Photos and video of the Jasan beach facility published by state media on Thursday showed that it features four small lounge and changing areas, dozens of beach umbrellas and chairs and a tent camping site in an adjacent grassy area.

The facility is small with only basic amenities, and its establishment also raises questions over whether Thongchon locals will have access to Wonsan Kalma just 30 minutes up the road. State media previously declared that authorities hope to take 40,000 DPRK citizens to the resort per day as a “gift of love of the motherly Party for the great people.”

This adds to suspicions that Wonsan Kalma is reserved for select citizens who are part of organized groups from well-performing work units or schools, as well as paying elite from the country’s shadow capitalist class, with the vast majority of people likely unable to visit.

State media has pushed utopian propaganda messaging almost daily this month suggesting all DPRK citizens are the “happiest people in the world” because the state built the Wonsan Kalma resort for all of them, suggesting unrealistically that it will be common for all people to visit at least once per year.

The new Jasan beach may be intended to make up for the lack of spots at Wonsan Kalma with a casual local facility, especially targeting workers from important Kim Jong Un-backed fisheries in Thongchon.

Kangwon Province and the adjacent South Hamgyong Province feature arguably the most appealing beaches in the country, with the whitest sands and deepest waters. 

But authorities appear to more tightly control access to these beaches than in other parts of the country. This may be due to their proximity to South Korea and concern that citizens may try to escape, though coastal electrified or barbed wire fencing is present nationwide. 

Satellite imagery reveals much more active and freewheeling beach culture in other parts of the country, including Chongjin much farther north up the east coast and Nampho on the west coast. 

Imagery shows beaches in these areas covered in makeshift multi-colored tents in the summer months, indicative of local people being allowed to gather in these spots with relatively less state control or formalization of beach activities. Kangwon and South Hamgyong beaches appear mostly empty in summer, with activity limited to select government-controlled facilities like Songdowon and Majon.

Meanwhile, DPRK state media also promoted the opening of the remodeled Waudo Pleasure Ground in Nampho earlier this month, featuring a basic waterslide and other amenities meant to mirror the Wonsan Kalma experience for locals of other areas.

The new beach construction and propaganda, along with an initiative to build rural homes and open discussion of the country’s “backward” economy and wealth inequality, is likely part of his efforts to improve support for Kim’s leadership and head off dissent. 

Edited by Bryan Betts