North Korean state media rolled out another surreal spectacle this week as Kim Jong Un toured a luxury spa complex. The dictator cheerfully mingling with guests dressed in swimsuits in what appeared to be a carefully staged propaganda display meant to project leisure, prosperity, and normalcy inside one of the world’s most secretive regimes. Kim marked the opening of the newly renovated Onpo Workers’ Recreation Center by presiding over a ribbon-cutting ceremony at what North Korean media described as the country’s largest hot springs resort. The complex, located at a site designated as a natural monument, is being promoted as a showcase of leisure and wellness under Kim’s leadership. State images showed Kim touring the facility and briefly entering spa rooms where guests sat in hot tubs wearing swimsuits. He was seen chatting with visitors and testing the water with his hand. The opening follows years of reconstruction ordered by Kim after a 2018 visit, when he harshly criticized the center as poorly maintained and unsanitary. He demanded a complete overhaul, a project that took several years.
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