The activity may indicate that Kim Jong Un or those in his inner circle are spending weekends at the east coast retreat in between important political meetings in Pyongyang. It’s also possible that his family or other guests are using the various watercraft, or even that they are part of military activities: North Korean soldiers have been observed using fleets of jet skis in the past.

Officially, Kim was in Pyongyang for a Politburo meeting on June 4, a “consultative meeting” with top officials on June 7 and a military meeting on June 11. He is expected to appear at a party plenum in the capital in the coming days.

KIM THE WAVE RUNNER

According to Anna Fifield in her 2019 book “The Great Successor,” Rodman and numerous others that accompanied him to North Korea in 2013 observed “dozens” of jet skis parked under a covered marina at the Wonsan mansion. Fifield added that interviewees told her Kim “always won [the races] because he had the most powerful machine.”

“The young leader liked to zoom close to the shore and jump the waves,” she wrote.

Fifield said that women from North Korea’s Moranbong Band joined Rodman and Kim at the beach in 2013, and that typically the Kim family “shares their playground with the other elite who help keep them in power.”

Former leader Kim Jong Il’s personal chef Kenji Fujimoto has also told stories about riding jet skis with a young Kim Jong Un in Wonsan.

In other recent activity at his Wonsan mansion, Kim’s 60-meter-long (200 foot) pool barge has been parked at the private beach there since early May, and his 80-meter-long (260 foot) luxury barge, featuring a multi-story lounge and dual twisting water slides feeding into an Olympic-size swimming pool, was spotted being towed toward the beach on May 24.

A large inflatable water slide also appeared to be installed near the private beach for an event just after last October’s military parade, and large garden tents appeared in the same place on Feb. 29 and Apr. 2, 2020.

Meanwhile, Kim pleaded with workers across the country last month to “unhesitatingly sacrifice themselves for the sake of society,” saying that North Korea has faced its “worst-ever difficulties in recent years.”

Edited by Arius Derr