A GLITZY mega-resort dubbed the “North-Korean Benidorm” is luring record numbers of tourists – even as it’s dogged by claims of forced labour, surveillance fears, and human waste horror stories.

The sprawling Wonsan-Kalma resort – personally championed by dictator Kim Jong-un – has become the centrepiece of North Korea’s bid to build a holiday empire.

Nearly 10,000 trips were made by visitors from Russia last year, the highest since records began in 2010 and double the figure a decade ago.

More than half of the visitors, 5,075, were tourists.

While the luxury complex is pulling in waves of Russian holidaymakers, Brits are effectively barred from visiting the secretive state’s tightly controlled playground.

The surge came after Pyongyang reopened its borders to Russians in 2024 following the pandemic isolation, with visits rocketing from just 73 in 2022 to 6,469 in 2024.

The boom may be linked to the flashy opening of Wonsan-Kalma last summer, where Kim was photographed watching fireworks and lounging with cigarettes while surveying guests hurtling down a waterslide.

State media gushed the complex – which can house 20,000 – was part of efforts “to bring about the shining efflorescence of socialist civilisation on our land” and the “brilliant fruition of the profound thinking and undying efforts” of Kim.

Early Russian visitors described eerie calm and VIP treatment.

Anastasia Samsonova, 33, told BBC that “everything was immaculate” and she “enjoyed a vacation without people”.

Another tourist told RBC: “We’ve been to a lot of places. We were in Bali three months ago. But this is real relaxation.”

But guests also revealed they were shadowed.

“You are accompanied everywhere… even on the beach someone walked with us,” blogger Daria Zubkova said, adding minders insisted it was just concern in case visitors got lost.

She admitted: “Most likely, I think that there is probably all of this [wiretapping], but we just weren’t afraid, because we have nothing to say that would make someone scold us for it.”

Tourists were warned emails cost £1.65 and would be sent from the hotel’s account – meaning secret police could monitor messages.

Journalists claimed scenes at the resort looked choreographed.

One reporter said the beach was deserted until Russians arrived – then crowds suddenly appeared with inflatables but didn’t enter the sea.

Two locals were also seen permanently playing billiards until reporters approached.

A week later, authorities abruptly shut the resort to foreigners. It reportedly remains restricted.

The project allegedly relied on forced “shock brigades” of teenagers threatened with labour camps if they refused to work, according to a UN report cited by Daily NK.

Workers were reportedly made to labour almost nonstop in freezing conditions, sleeping just three hours a night and surviving on “foul-smelling seaweed soup, salted radishes and yellow corn rice”.

One woman said supervisors “harassed” female workers and “many women were sexually abused”.

Expert Michael Madden of the Stimson Center said pay was minimal and food scarce, with some workers stealing from locals to survive.

When deadlines slipped in 2020, the unfinished hotels sat empty – until homeless wanderers known as kkotjebi moved in.

“The buildings are no different from toilets, with bowel movements left behind by the kkotjebi everywhere,” a source said. “Now they’re full of human waste and soot from fires.”

Two project chiefs were sacked during delays and never heard from again. Madden warned that if they were blamed for corruption, they could have faced prison – or execution.

The resort stands on what was once a missile test site.

Even during construction, rockets were still blasting off nearby.

Campaigner Greg Scarlatoiu of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea warned: “The money coming from tourists, mostly Russians at the moment, will go to the areas that the regime regards as critical to its survival.

“These are: keeping the Kim family rich, and the key elites happy, as well as developing nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, and other tools of death.”

Kim modelled the resort on Costa Blanca after sending a fact-finding team there in 2017.

Construction began in 2018 but repeatedly stalled, partly due to border closures and lack of imported matericals.

Even now, some interiors may still be unfinished and infrastructure like sewage treatment isn’t fully ready yet.

Despite this, Kim hailed the complex as “one of the greatest successes this year” and “the proud first step” toward a tourism boom.

He’s already expanded attractions with Masikryong Ski Resort and Yangdok Hot Springs Resort.

For now, foreigners allowed in are almost exclusively Russians – reflecting Kim’s alliance with Vladimir Putin.

When Putin’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov visited, a group of 13 tourists were bumped from their hotel to make way for officials.

Trips cost about £1,360 plus travel to Vladivostok, then flights into Pyongyang. One tour even used an entire train for just 13 guests.

More than 250 people from the UK have already registered interest via travel firm On The Beach – though Western tourists still aren’t generally allowed.

Expert Jacob Bogle said the giant complex could hold up to 100,000 visitors but warned it would rely heavily on domestic tourists because foreign demand is limited.

He added that if it opens fully, Russians and visitors from China would likely dominate.

Campaigners have warned holidaying there could be dangerous.

Scarlatoiu called trips “morally and ethically wrong – it is truly an abomination.”

Past visitors have paid a terrible price including American student Otto Warmbier who was arrested during a 2016 trip, detained for 17 months over a propaganda poster, and later died.