North Korea will reopen one city to foreign tourists in December after nearly five years of border closures due to the Covid pandemic, according to tour operators.
Two China-based Shenyang’s KTG Tours and Beijing’s Koryo Tour operators have announced that tourists will soon be allowed to visit the mountainous northern city of Samjiyon.
When the pandemic first began in early 2020, North Korea sealed itself off and didn’t ease sanctions until the middle of the previous year.
According to BBC reports, the border closures also cut off imports of essential goods, leading to food shortages that were made worse by international sanctions because of the country’s nuclear program.
“So far just Samjiyon has been officially confirmed but we think that Pyongyang and other places will open too!!!” Shenyang’s KTG Tours posted on its Facebook page.
Beijing’s Koryo Tour said tourists could “potentially” visit other parts of North Korea in December. “Having waited for over four years to make this announcement, Koryo Tours is very excited about the opening of North Korean tourism once again,” it said on its website.
In recent months, North Korea has taken stringent moves toward permitting the return of citizens who were stranded abroad due to border controls. The decision to accept Russian visitors early in the year is indicative of improving relations between the two countries. The forthcoming reopening to broader international tourism could signal a shift in North Korea’s approach to foreign engagement, though the full extent of this shift remains to be seen.
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