Kim Jong Un announces plans to build luxury beach resort to attract Western tourists

North Korea's Supreme Leader, Kim Jong Un is planning to build a vacation resort in the industrial port town of Wonsan, expanding the development plans to boost the country's tourism industry.

A beach resort will be built on Songdown Beach in Wonsan, a waterfront city that currently houses factories, dockyards, and a naval base, along with a financial district and a sports and entertainment area, the Huffington Post reports.

According to the report, the plan which has been put forth in a document entitled, 'General blueprint for the Wonsan district,' came to the front after photos of Kim visiting a construction site of a ski resort at Masik Pass, a snowy hill about 12 miles from Wonsan were released by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

The town of Sinuiju, which is located on the North Korea- China border, had opened to western tourists for the first time ever preceding the visit.

Stating that Wonsan was a holiday destination, Kim had told former South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun that he planned to de-industrialize the area and close down it's factories and shipyards.

Kim believes that there are positive things to come from western visitors, which would include obvious economic benefits to North Korea's expanding niche tourism industry.

Kim's father and predecessor, Kim Jong II was the first to open a ski resort at Mount Kumgang in 2008, which was subsequently closed after a North Korean soldier shot dead a tourist outside the complex.

Although the document report on the Wonsan development didn't include a timetable for construction, the report says that the project is hugely dependent upon foreign investment, with the country trying to acquire one million dollars from a company in Singapore.