Wednesday 6 January 2010

Ship shape ? (or submarine shape ?)



Is it a beached boat ? No it's actually a hotel called the Sun Cruise Resort on Korea's east coast, at a place called Jeongdongjin. The hotel opened in 2002, has 211 rooms, is 165 metres long, 45 metres high and weighs 30 000 tons.

Jeongdongjin is famous in Korea for having the best view of the sunrise in Korea, and people flock to this part of the coast for New Year's Eve.

A little further up the coast at Gangneung's Unification Park is a North Korean submarine, captured when it ran aground in 1996. 



It weighs 325 tonnes, is 35 metres long and had a top speed of 13 km/hr. Inside it transported 11 crew and 15 soldiers and agents. When it ran aground the crew members were shot by the soldiers and agents who landed and attempted to return to North Korea. However all were captured or killed.

Another reminder of the North Korea threat along the coast is the barbed wire fences common along many parts of the coast in order to protect invasion from North Korean spies :


If you want to read about my trip to North Korea please follow this link.