Kim wants more entertainment in North Korea, but under state supervision

Cafes. Water parks. Shopping for pleasure. North Korea - a country few would associate with leisure or enjoyment - is experiencing an unexpected boom in entertainment.

Leader Kim Jong Un, a luxury-loving man himself, is devising new ways for his citizens to spend money. Chinese customs data shows the scale of the trend: Imports of massage equipment into North Korea have increased 40-fold over the past decade. Treadmill shipments have jumped more than 600 percent. Pianos and even bumper cars are also arriving in increasing numbers.

The spending spree includes luxury shopping malls, coastal resorts and ski resorts that are springing up across North Korea, according to a Reuters analysis of trade data and state media reports, as well as interviews with five recent visitors and two defectors.

Analysts say the goal is not just to give citizens greater access to life's small luxuries. By channeling personal spending through a network of state-controlled entertainment and shopping facilities, Kim is strengthening state control over trade, suppressing informal markets and opening up new sources of revenue and economic growth for the nuclear-armed country.

The strategy "brings production, distribution and capital flows, which are concentrated in markets, into official economic flows managed by the state," said Kang Song-hyun of the Seoul-based Hyundai Research Institute.

Spending opportunities are growing despite North Korea being under strict United Nations sanctions - which include restrictions on luxury goods, energy and mineral trade - designed to hamper Kim's weapons program. North Korea's economy grew 3,5 percent in 2025, the third straight year of growth above 3 percent, South Korea's central bank said in July.

The country's transformation has caught the attention of foreigners. After visiting Pyongyang in May, Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan described the capital's progress as "remarkable," saying Pyongyang resembles "any modern city" in East Asia.

Residents sip cappuccinos and browse home appliances at the Rangnang Eguk Kumgang luxury shopping mall in Pyongyang, which opened last year, according to footage posted on social media and verified by Reuters. They can quench their thirst at the Hwasong Taedongang beer restaurant, which opened two years ago and has been heavily promoted by state media. In April, Kim also visited a new pet store with his daughter, Kim Ju-ae, where she was drawn to the kittens and puppies.

Pyongyang's rapid expansion of entertainment content is being financed by multiple sources of income, including cryptocurrency theft, sending North Korean soldiers to fight on Russia's side in Ukraine, and exporting coal and other minerals, according to South Korean researchers.

U.S. and other foreign officials, as well as cybersecurity experts, have repeatedly linked cryptocurrency thefts to hackers backed by the North Korean state. The Seoul-based Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank funded by the South Korean government, estimates that North Korea earned up to $14,4 billion from its involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war between August 2023 and December 2025.

The influx of money is gradually trickling through the North Korean economy, where many have also made money through informal trade. But the accumulated wealth is creating a problem: “There is a middle class of about eight million people who have savings but nowhere to spend them,” said Ridiger Frank, professor of East Asian economics and society at the University of Vienna.

Spending is Kim's answer, Frank said: it reduces discontent, redirects money so it doesn't drive up the prices of staples like rice, and at the same time fuels economic growth through domestic demand.

It is estimated that North Korea earned up to $14,4 billion from its involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war between August 2023 and December 2025.

With its economic situation improving, North Korea has less need for sanctions relief and less reason to renew nuclear talks with the United States, analysts say, despite President Donald Trump expressing a desire for another meeting with Kim.

The North Korean embassy in Beijing did not respond to questions about boosting domestic consumption. Neither the Russian Foreign Ministry nor the White House commented.

China's Foreign Ministry said China continues trade and cooperation with North Korea while implementing United Nations Security Council resolutions, adding that sanctions should not affect the living standards of the population.

Parks and Recreation

Mentions of tourism, entertainment and cultural life in North Korean state media have increased since 2022, along with the opening of new and renovation of existing content, a Reuters analysis of more than 1.200 articles showed.

These include the Wonsan Kalma resort, set to open in the summer of 2025; five luxury hotels that opened in December in Samjiyon, on the border with China; a ski resort under construction nearby; as well as an aqua park and an as-yet-unfinished equestrian club in the northeast of the country.

In a state television report on the August heat wave, the beaches of the resort town of Wonsan were packed with domestic guests.

"One of our local contacts told me that when he took his family there, several of them had to share a room meant for two people because everything else was already booked," said Rowan Bird, co-founder of the travel agency Young Pioneer Tours.

The Wonsan Kalma resort was visited by more than 300.000 domestic guests in the second half of 2025, according to data from the Chinese embassy in Pyongyang, which cited the figure in a February announcement about its ambassador's visit.

Saunas, swimming pools, video game rooms and sports centers have also opened in the northeastern city of Rason, said a Chinese businessman who identified himself by his surname Cui.

As part of a regional development plan, Kim is also building entertainment complexes with libraries, restaurants and cinemas across the country. According to state media, at least two dozen such facilities have already been completed or are under construction.

But the most lavish new developments are in Pyongyang. State media described a new residential district that includes a playground, a car showroom and a barbecue restaurant that serves, among other things, salmon belly burgers and foie gras.

Kim's comfort

The range of goods available in North Korea has also expanded, three visitors who recently visited the country told Reuters.

At the Ryugyong Golden Plaza shopping mall, set to open in 2023, the logos of watchmakers such as Rolex, Omega and Herbelin can be seen in the windows, while an electronics store bears Huawei's logo, according to social media footage, the authenticity of which was confirmed by Reuters.

Rolex and Huawei declined to comment. Omega and Herbelin told Reuters they do not have official retailers or distributors in North Korea.

North Koreans are shopping online using mobile apps similar to China's Alipay, according to photos released by Rowan Bird and NKTechLab, an analytical project of the Stimson Center for the American Research, which is based in Pyongyang. Bird, who visited Pyongyang in May, said that mobile payments are used "everywhere" and for "everything for sale."

Trade data show that the wave of leisure investment includes both personal consumption goods and government-built infrastructure.

Chinese customs data shows a surge in shipments of pianos, watches and amusement park equipment, including carousels, roller coasters and water slides. North Korea imported more than three metric tons of bumper cars from China, worth more than $20.000, from January 2025 to July this year.

Trade with China has largely recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic. Pyongyang has even developed a kind of car culture, fueled by vehicle imports from China.

Buying time

After the famine of the 1990s, semi-legal markets flourished because the state was unable to supply the population. Attempts to close them down early this century failed because the state lacked the distribution infrastructure to replace them, said Jung Chang-hyun, director of the Peace Economics Research Institute in Seoul.

Now, he says, Kim's consumption-boosting strategy serves precisely that purpose: building a state-owned trading infrastructure that can compete with, and ultimately supplant, private markets.

Payment and delivery apps also allow authorities to monitor private spending, analysts say. Pyongyang passed a law in 2023 requiring all banks and stores to accept electronic payments.

But not everyone is benefiting from the consumer boom. Jang Il-chol, who worked as a driver in Pyongyang before defecting to South Korea last year, said people like him have had almost no access to new restaurants and entertainment. Although mobile phones have become almost ubiquitous in the capital, many North Koreans distrust the authorities and prefer to pay with cash, Jang said.

Professor Frank says Kim's campaign to boost domestic consumption is, at least for now, paying off.

"Spending buys time," he said. "But it can't buy loyalty forever."