No trigger-happy dictator loves 90s kitsch — or skiing — as much as Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s benevolent leader. Though mostly known for his hip haircut, despotic tendencies and fondness for shows of military strength, Kim is a huge fan of his country’s only ski resort, which of course he built, in 2013.
Masikryong Ski Resort is surprisingly luxe, with its hotel, gourmet restaurants, pools, massage rooms, ski rental shop…and totally not creepy, screen-filled room called the General Observation Station.
The resort and its 10 slopes up to 4,000 feet in elevation are a huge point of pride to the supreme leader, who spent two years in Switzerland as a teenager, apparently developing a love for skiing. He’s so proud of it, he invited Terje Haakonsen, Dan Liedahl, and Mike Ravelson to shralp it up there.
Still, not surprisingly in a poverty- and hunger- stricken society where a day pass costs a month salary for North Koreans, the place is pretty empty. That could explain why his propaganda machine created this 90s-style promo video.
Does he, like so many of us, have an ironic love of the 90s? Or is he so closed off from the outside world that he doesn’t realize video making techniques have changed a bit? We don’t know and it doesn’t matter because this place looks fun!
If you’d like to check it out, the resort is located just a three-hour drive from Pyongyang. And, thanks to the back-breaking work of North Koreans using only hand tools, the road is always free of snow and ice!
Come shred some groomers and get your 90s freak on with the help of Kim and his repressed people!
