North Korea has opened its doors to Russian tourists, and among the first to take advantage of the opportunity was 33-year-old Anastasiya Samsonova. She spent a week at the newly opened Wonsan-Kalma resort, which was personally inaugurated by Kim Jong Un.
"We loved it. We saw only beautiful things, we felt completely free," Anastasiya tells the BBC. Although the resort offers white sandy beaches, sparkling sea and modern hotels, her photos show deserted sun loungers and empty dining rooms.
The reason is that only Russians are currently welcome among foreigners.
"The hotel was brand new, everything was beautifully decorated, the infrastructure was very developed," she says.
When asked why she didn't choose Turkey or Thailand, she replies that she and her friends wanted to see what life was like in that mysterious country.
North Korea's growing popularity among Russians comes in the context of increasingly friendly relations between Moscow and Pyongyang following the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. North Korean soldiers have helped in Russia's Kursk region, while North Korean apples and beer can now be found on store shelves in the Russian Far East. Recently, there have even been direct flights between Moscow and Pyongyang.
Moscow-based travel agency Vostok Intur now offers two tours a week, and its director Irina Kobeleva praises the destination.
"North Korea is an extraordinary place, completely different from the rest of the world. There are no advertisements on the streets and even the asphalt is washed," she says.
According to her, most tourists are elderly people who long for the Soviet past, but interest among young people is also growing. (A2 Televizion)
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