Muhamad Yehia
Besides a number of Russian tourists last year, few sightseers have been allowed into North Korea since the Covid-19 pandemic — until now.
North Korea opened its borders to a small group of Western tourists this week for the first time in five years.
The travellers from the UK, Canada, Greece, New Zealand, France, Germany, Austria, Australia, and Italy are the first group of Western visitors to the country since it shut its borders during the Covid-19 pandemic.
A group of Russian tourists visited for a ski trip last year.
The Beijing-based Koryo Tours said it arranged a five-day trip for the 13 international tourists to the northeastern border city of Rason
The travel company’s manager, Simon Cockerell, said the visitors crossed into North Korea by land from China. Whilst inside the country, they visited factories, shops, schools and statues of the country’s first two supreme leaders, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il.
He added that more tours were currently being arranged.
North Korea typically imposes restrictions on foreign travellers, banning them from taking photographs at sensitive places and forcing them to be accompanied with local guides
The country first closed it borders to international tourists in January 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic began.
Prior to the pandemic, tourism was a legitimate source of foreign currency for North Korea, one of the world’s most sanctioned countries.
More than 90% of North Korea’s tourists before 2020 came from neighbouring China, according to the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank run by South Korea’s intelligence agency.
But when North Korea imposed one of the world’s most draconian Covid-19 lockdowns in order to curb the virus, diplomats were quickly jetted out of the country and border traffic was severely curtailed
Since 2022, North Korea has begun slowly easing restrictions and reopening its borders, allowing around 100 Russian tourists into the country in February 2022.
Some 880 Russian tourists visited the country throughout 2024, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry.
Experts suggest the visit by foreign tourists is a sign that the country is looking to resume international tourism in order to bring much-needed foreign currency into its struggling economy.
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un is also expected to open a major tourism site on the country’s eastern coast in June. US President Donald Trump responded approvingly, saying: “I think he has tremendous condo capabilities. He’s got a lot of shoreline
Lee Sangkuen, an expert at the Institute, said: “North Korea has been heavily investing in tourism sites, but there have been not much domestic demand.”
“We can assess that North Korea now wants to resume international tourism to bring in many tourists from abroad.”