Hole in Un! North Korea invites foreign golfers to take part in Pyongyang tournament and develop ‘friendship’ with its own players – years after former leader Kim Jong-Il claimed to score 11 aces the first time he picked up a club

• North Korea invited visitors to an underwater golf course, archery and boating
• The reclusive country appears to be reopening after a rigid Covid-19 blockade 

North Korea has invited foreign golfers to take part in a tournament in Pyongyang and to develop a ‘friendship’ with its own players. 

The surprise move is another tentative step in the reclusive country’s reopening after Chinese and Russian officials attended a military parade last month.

North Korea has been under a rigid self-imposed Covid-19 blockade since early 2020 but there are increasing signs Pyongyang may be becoming more flexible on border controls, experts say.

The North’s state media has said Kim Jong Il – current leader Kim Jong Un’s father and predecessor – scored an incredible 11 holes-in-one the first time he ever played golf. 

‘The Pyongyang Golf Course hosts an amateur golfers competition in spring and autumn every year,’ read a post from August 2 on Pyongyang’s official DPR Korea Tour website.

North Korea has invited foreign golfers to take part in a tournament in Pyongyang. Pictured: An autumn golf contest at the Pyongyang Golf Course in 2022

The surprise move is another tentative step in the reclusive country’s reopening. Kim Jong Un is pictured during a meeting with a Chinese delegation last month

‘Foreign amateurs can also take part in this competition held in spring and autumn in our country and develop friendship with Korean amateur golfers.’

The post also included an email address and phone number for its ‘golf travel company’ – under Pyongyang’s official tourism administration – but did not say when the tournament would take place. 

READ MORE: Kim Jong-Un fires missile ‘from his GOLF COURSE to send a message to the West he can launch a nuke from anywhere’

In a separate post, Pyongyang said its agency, the Ryomyong Golf Travel Company, had developed attractions including ‘an underwater golf course, archery ground and boating ground’.

The posts were shared after Beijing confirmed in July that North Korea had registered for this year’s Asian Games, to be held in the Chinese city of Hangzhou in September.

North Korea had registered for an overseas sporting event earlier this year but failed to send athletes.

Cheong Seong-chang of the Center for North Korea Studies at the Sejong Institute told AFP recent signs indicate ‘that Chinese tourism to North Korea will gradually resume in the future’.

The posts indicate that North Korea is taking its first steps towards golf tourism.

But Simon Cockerell, manager of Koryo Tours which organised visits to North Korea pre-pandemic, told South Korean outlet NK News that he doubted the country would become a serious player on the global stage. 

North Korea said more than 200 people can play at its golf course, which covers 196 hectares

Pyongyang said its agency, the Ryomyong Golf Travel Company, had developed attractions including ‘an underwater golf course, archery ground and boating ground’. Pictured: Players at the course in 2022

He said: ‘Almost nobody in North Korea plays gold and hardly any tourists play when they are there.

‘It looks characteristically detail-light and aimed generally at the future rather than specifically soon.’

He continued: ‘I have never met anyone there who seriously thought golf would be a key part of the future of tourism in their country.’

Cockerell added the fact that the main course lies outside Pyongyang could limit golf tourism to the city.  

Pyongyang’s golf course was reportedly built in the early 1980s and was officially opened in 1987 to celebrate the 75th birthday of the country’s founder, Kim Il Sung.

It was financed by pro-Pyongyang ethnic Koreans in Japan.

Today, the course ‘covers an area of 196 hectares and has… 18 holes in total. More than 200 people can play there,’ the DPR Korea Tour website says.

An Chan-il, a defector turned researcher who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies, said Pyongyang has ‘established a department of golf’ at a key sports university in Pyongyang.

‘North Korea has designated golf as an important means of earning foreign currency,’ An said.

However, according to South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper, there are signs that the North has also started using the course for its banned missile tests.

Pictured: Kim Jong Un and his daughter Kim Ju Ae nearby the mobile launcher

Pictured: Kim Jong Un with his ten-year-old daughter Kim Ju Ae at the golf course near his private mansion

Pyongyang’s March 9 launches of multiple short-range ballistic missiles were likely fired from Thaesong lake at the golf course to make it difficult for Seoul to ‘pinpoint the launch origin’, according to a military expert cited by the paper.

In 2005, during a period of better ties, the golf course hosted a Korean Ladies’ Professional Golf Association event.

The winner, South Korea’s Song Bo-bae, told media at the time: ‘The greens were much slower than the ones in South Korea, which made it quite challenging.’

Kim Jong-Un himself grew up playing basketball instead of golf while he lived in Switzerland during his teens. 

However he is said to have a private golf course at one of his mansions near Pyongyang. 

Earlier this year photos suggested that he launched his ‘most powerful’ missile from the fairway of course. 

The new Hwasong-18 rocket blasted off in April from a launch site east of Pyongyang, according to Sam Lair of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.

North Korea expert Jacob Bogle identified the golf course when he created a comprehensive map of the country from satellite photos.

He thought the location might have been chosen to send a message to the rest of the world.

He said: ‘The Hwasong-18 launch took place at a little known mansion in the Samsok District of eastern Pyongyang, along a bend in the Taedong River.

‘There isn’t much public information about this complex, but the mansion includes a large banquet hall and has one of North Korea’s three known golf courses.

‘They’ve been launching from a diverse range of locations like runways, roads and beaches, and I suspect it’s to demonstrate their ability to launch from unsuspected places and different terrains.

‘Basically it’s a threat – ‘we can do this from anywhere and if you attack our dedicated ballistic missiles bases, we can still drive off to a random golf course or wherever and launch a nuke.’

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