After almost 5 years of strict border closure prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic, North Korea will begin to reopen to international tourists in December, China-based tour agencies have reported.
The DPRK’s Covid policy has been so strict that it did not even allow its own citizens to return home for more than three years. North Koreans only started being allowed back into the country at the end of August 2023. The same month, the first commercial flights to leave North Korea in over 3 years departed Pyongyang, one headed to Beijing and another headed to the Russian city of Vladivostok.
From the beginning of this year, Russian tourists have been allowed to visit the country, but, as of December, citizens of other “friendly nations” will be permitted to enter North Korea, starting with the northern city of Samjiyon.
“We have just been told that tourists will be able to go to Samjiyon (Mt. Paektu area) this winter”, Shenyang-based KTG Tours wrote on Facebook on 14 August. “Exact dates to be confirmed. So far just Samjiyon has been officially confirmed but we think that Pyongyang and other places will open too!!!”
“We have received confirmation from our local partner that tourism to Samjiyon and potentially the rest of the country will officially resume in December 2024”, Beijing-based Koryo Tours announced on their website on the same day. “Having waited for over four years to make this announcement, Koryo Tours is very excited for the opening of North Korean tourism once again.”
Samjiyon lies at the foothills of Mount Paektu, the tallest in the country, and is the least populated city in North Korea. Known as a winter destination, Kim Jong Un has been aiming to redevelop the area to “revitalise international tourism”.
“Kim Jong Un set forth important tasks for face-lifting Samjiyon to be a new and innovative cultured city in the light of the daily-growing requirements of today’s reality”, the Pyongyang Times reported in July. “Unveiling the Party’s plan to develop it into a typical mountainous city in the northern part of the country, a characteristic combined four-season mountainous tourist resort, to meet the cultural and emotional demands of the people on the highest level and revitalize international tourism, he said that the grand nature of the Mt Paektu area consisting of mountains and primeval forests is our precious resource, of which we can feel proud.”
Although getting accurate estimates is difficult and different sources offer different numbers, before the Covid-19 pandemic the country reportedly welcomed about 120,000 Chinese visitors per year and an additional 5,000 visitors from Western countries.
