Photo: EPA
A group of snowboarders planning a trip to a newly-constructed North Korean resort have postponed the project after the country announced it had successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb last week.
The trip was conceived by Snowboarder magazine’s Tom Monterosso and included Terje Haakonsen, Dan Liedahl, and Mike Ravelson, and was set to visit Masikryong, a newly constructed resort in the Kangwon Province. “We talked about it. Some people still thought we could go, but we decided if there was any doubt whatsoever then we should just cancel,” Monterosso told AFP.com.
“The first H-bomb test was successfully conducted in the DPRK at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Juche 105 (2016), pursuant to the strategic determination of the WPK,” said a release from the North Korean government. “Through the test conducted with indigenous wisdom, technology and efforts, the DPRK fully proved that the technological specifications of the newly developed H-bomb for the purpose of the test were accurate and scientifically verified the power of smaller H-bomb.”
This is the second time Monterosso was shut out on a North Korean trip. He had to cancel a visit there last winter after the movie The Interview hit theaters and the government was outraged with the content featuring an oddball journalist tasked with assassinating the North Korean leader, Kim Jon-un. A North Korean tourism company was actually selling tour packages alongside the snowboarder’s trip, a move which many pundits had surmised as a way to boost interest in the resort and perhaps increase its economic viability. No word on whether the trip had been rescheduled.
