Tourists warned to avoid visiting North Korean resorts because ‘they are bankrolling Kim’s NUCLEAR war plans’

PEOPLE are being warned against going to North Korea for their annual holidays - because it is propping up Kim Jong-un's dream of becoming a nuclear warlord.

The US State Department has just issued an unusually severe warning to Americans considering travelling to the hermit state.

The rogue state has caused uproar after it conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and fifth in September in defiance of furious international reaction and stiff sanctions.

It also test-fired more than 20 ballistic missiles, including the mid-range Musudan missile, which theoretically is capable of flying as far as the US territory of Guam.

The US State Department statement, posted on its website, said: “The [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] funnels revenue from a variety of sources to its nuclear and weapons programs, which it priorities above everything else, often at the expense of the well-being of its own people.

"It is entirely possible that money spent by tourists in the DPRK goes to fund these programs.

“We would urge all travellers, before travelling to the DPRK, to consider what they might be supporting.”

As revealed by Star Online, British skiers are shelling out £1,300-a-pop to visit crackpot Kim Jong Un’s virtually deserted £21 million white elephant winter sports resort.

Elsewhere there are eight hotels open to foreigners – who must all travel via China – in Pyongyang, which is stuffed with buildings designed to show the nation’s power.

One of them, the rundown Ryanggang Hotel has been dammed by reviews on travel bible TripAdvisor.

The despot is boost his hermit state’s struggling economy by attracting large numbers of tourists to North Korea.

He’s demanded his leaders boost numbers from just 6,000-a-year to a million by 2017.

Other attractions in the capital city include a water-park and a zoo. Exotic animals include dogs such as Labradors and Alsatians.

But should you want to nip across the 3-kilometre bridge from the Chinese border city of Dandong, you will find yourself driving off the end of it.

It ends in the middle of a paddy field when it crosses over to the North Korean side.

The State Department also warned that travellers they may end banged up in a gulag for hardly no reason at all. 

At least 14 U.S. citizens have been jailed in the country over the last 10 years.

And  the statement said, and being a member of a group or using a tour guide "does not prevent North Korean authorities from detaining or arresting you."

More recently American student Otto Warmbier was handed 15 years of hard labour after he admitted stealing a propaganda banner from a hotel.

Meanwhile, North Korea's state radio station has begun broadcasting mysterious "number station" codes believed to be messages to spies embedded in Western nations like Britain.

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