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N.Korea offers tourists chance to play golf http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=inDepthNews&storyID=2006-11-01T161055Z_01_SEO249833_RTRUKOC_0_US-KOREA-NORTH-GOLF.xml&WTmodLoc=InDepthNewsHome_C2_inDepthNews-8
Wed Nov 1, 2006
By Jonathan Thatcher
MOUNT KUMGANG, North Korea (Reuters) - They may be no match for North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who is reputed to have scored 11 holes-in-one in his debut game, but golfers might get a kick just from teeing off in the world's most reclusive state.
The trouble is there may not be too many golfers at the picturesque Diamond Country Club golf course in North Korea due to international sanctions that followed Pyongyang's October 9 nuclear test.
"Those who have bought memberships have been anxious ... We can't say the North Korean nuclear test hasn't affected our project," said Park Hyun-chul, the local manager of the project for Emerson Pacific, a South Korean golf course developer.
The course is set in the scenic Mount Kumgang range and close to the demilitarized zone (DMZ), a relic of the Cold War that has divided the Korean peninsula for more than half a century and either side of which are stationed more than one million troops.
"Please see how peaceful it is," Park told a group of visiting journalists recently.
Below was the almost circular Changjon harbor with one North Korean naval ship at anchor nearby, and what looked to be a second further away. Despite the difficulty of reaching the course -- only by bus across one of the world's most heavily defended borders -- it has one great attraction for golf-mad South Koreans: it is cheap.
The price of membership is up to 20 million won ($21,120), a snip compared to a minimum of $250,000 for a standard club membership south of the border. Membership fees in South Korea can rise to as much as $1 million at exclusive clubs.
PUTTING IN NORTH KOREA
Park said his company -- whose share price dropped sharply after the nuclear test was announced -- hoped to attract those South Koreans who might otherwise head for Southeast Asia for cheap golfing holidays. The course is set to open late next year.
Emerson Pacific is pumping some 70 billion won ($74.12 million) into the project, which it claims has the world's longest hole at 989 metres (3,245 feet).
The course will also have 19 holes instead of the usual 18. The extra hole -- the 14th -- has been dubbed the "unification" hole, a nod to the original inspiration behind the Mount Kumgang resort to try to bring the two halves of Korea closer since they were divided during the 1950-1953 Korean War.
That hole is designed so that all the golfer need do is knock the ball onto a special "green" and it will automatically tumble in for a guaranteed hole-in-one. No putting required.
But that would still be a long way off the achievement of Kim Jong-il, the "Dear Leader" whose considerable feats -- including on his first round of golf when he reportedly hit 11 holes-in-one -- are frequently cited by North Korea's official media.
Ordinary North Koreans, however, will not be taking to this golf course other than as caddies, Park said.
"It's too expensive for them."
While South Korea has blossomed into Asia's third-largest economy, North Korea has slid into becoming among the world's poorest, even in the best harvests, forced to rely on food aid.
North Korean guide Kim Kun-chol, one of few local residents allowed direct contact with outsiders, said he had no problem with foreign tourists coming there to play golf.
North Koreans were anyway busy doing more important things.
"We have to build a strong country. We don't have time to play golf," Kim said.
($1=947.0 Won)
(Additional reporting by Lee Suwan)
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