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Edit: I knew NKeconWatch would get it right. This guy is a walking North Korean oddity encyclopedia. The golf course pictured before (now below) is Yangak Golf Course. See, I do not know everything, and I am very glad readers point me in the right direction when researching this stuff. All this time, I thought there was only one major golf course with some smaller ones. What clued me in when looking at the pictures when writing this is where was the club-shaped clubhouse? Well, now I know.

Me and a friend were trying to understand how it was so when KCNA said it was 18 holes when the one I pictured was nine holes. Well, I found the other one, and I am very sorry for not showing the right one. This correct golf course looks much bigger and more imposing. The 9-hole golf course looked a lot easier than the one NKEconWatch showed me. So I corrected the post. Thank you for the correction.

So you know what that means; that’s right kids, time for another North Korean oddity: The Pyongyang Golf Links. There is not a lot to say when this golf course was built (because I simply do not know), but according to the KCNA:

Pyongyang, August 20 (KCNA) — The Pyongyang golf links is abustle with Pyongyangites, overseas Koreans and foreigners in this tourist season. One can reach the golf links by covering just 27kms along the youth hero motorway from southeast of the Mangyongdae Schoolchildren’s Palace.

Its plottage is over 120 hectares and the green covers 45 hectares, with a total length of the golf courses extending about 7km.

A course has 18 holes.

Among the courses are eight short-distance and long-distance courses and 10 middle-distance courses. They are diverse and peculiar in styles.

Traps of the links were created by use of high and low slopes at the foot of Mt. Sokchon. They are in full line with international standards.

There are golf clubs and balls and other apparatuses for more than 100 golfers to play at the same time.

There is a modern club house with a floor space of over 2,700 square meters.

The house with a hip-saddle roof is supported by pillars which look like golf clubs. It gives all kinds of services to visitors. There are stalls inside the golf links.

The golf links boast a nearby thick woodland, diversity of plants and scenic beauty presented by lake Thaesong.

During breaks golfers enjoy collecting plants, boating and angling in the picturesque recreation ground.

Sounds pretty impressive from the KCNA’s point of view, but since when is KCNA not impressive? They can make cow dung on a plate sound like a gourmet meal. Now that you have a visual you would rather not imagine, there are some other odd things about this golf course beside the fact few go there and is simply a showpiece like everything else in Pyongyang.

Continue reading ‘North Korean Oddities: Pyongyang Golf Links (Corrected Thanks, NKEconWatch)’