North Korea, one of the most closed countries on the planet, has invited foreign golfers to participate in an amateur tournament in Pyongyang in order to “develop bonds of friendship” with their North Korean counterparts.
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The Golf of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, hosts “a competition for amateur golfers in spring and autumn and foreign amateurs can also participate”, according to the club’s website, which depends on the administration of tourism. from Pyongyang.
The date of the tournament was not indicated with more details.
The country has imposed very severe restrictions on itself since the beginning of 2020 to fight against COVID-19, but the signs have recently multiplied foreshadowing an upcoming relaxation of border controls.
Another sign of openness, Beijing had confirmed in July that North Korea had registered for the Asian Games, which will be held in China in September.
In a separate post, Pyongyang said its agency, the Ryomyong Golf Travel Company, had set up attractions including “an underwater golf course, an archery field and a boating pool “.
Cheong Seong-chang, from the Center for North Korea Studies at the Sejong Institute in South Korea, told AFP that there are recent signs that Chinese tourism to North Korea will gradually resume.
The Pyongyang golf course is said to have been built in the early 1980s and was officially opened in 1987 to celebrate the 75th birthday of the country’s founder, Kim Il Sung.
In 2005, at a time when relations between North Korea and South Korea were better, the golf course hosted a Korea Women’s Professional Golf Association competition.
For An Chan-Il, a defector-turned-researcher who heads the World Institute for North Korea Studies, Pyongyang “has made golf an important means of earning foreign currency” and even created a “golf department at a renowned sports university in the capital.
However, according to the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo, it seems that the North has also started using the course for its prohibited missile tests.
According to a military expert quoted by the newspaper, the multiple short-range ballistic missiles launched by Pyongyang on March 9 were likely fired from Lake Thaesong at the golf course to make it difficult for Seoul to “locate the origin of the launch”.
2023-08-09 12:53:10
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