North Korea has opened its doors to a group of international travelers
for the 1st time in years
 [February 26, 2025]
By HYUNG-JIN KIM
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A small group of foreign tourists has visited
North Korea in the past week, making them the first international
travelers to enter the country in five years except for a group of
Russian tourists who went to the North last year.
The latest trip indicates North Korea may be gearing up for a full
resumption of its international tourism to bring in much-needed foreign
currency to revive its struggling economy, experts say.
The Beijing-based travel company Koryo Tours said it arranged a five-day
trip from Feb. 20 to Feb. 24 for 13 international tourists to the
northeastern North Korean border city of Rason, where the country’s
special economic zone is located.
Koryo Tours General Manager Simon Cockerell said the travelers from the
U.K., Canada, Greece, New Zealand, France, Germany, Austria, Australia
and Italy crossed by land from China. He said that in Rason, they
visited factories, shops, schools and the statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim
Jong Il, the late grandfather and father of current leader Kim Jong Un.
“Since January of 2020, the country has been closed to all international
tourists, and we are glad to have finally found an opening in the Rason
area, in the far north of North Korea,” Cockerell said.
“Our first tour has been and gone, and now more tourists on both group
and private visits are going in, arranging trips,” he added.
After the pandemic began, North Korea quickly banned tourists, jetted
out diplomats and severely curtailed border traffic in one of the
world’s most draconian COVID-19 restrictions. But since 2022, North
Korea has been slowly easing curbs and reopening its borders.
In February 2024, North Korea accepted about 100 Russian tourists, the
first foreign nationals to visit the country for sightseeing. That
surprised many observers, who thought the first post-pandemic tourists
would come from China, North Korea’s biggest trading partner and major
ally.
A total of about 880 Russian tourists visited North Korea throughout
2024, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said, citing official Russian
data. Chinese group tours to North Korea remain stalled.
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A group of Russian tourists, likely the first foreign travelers from
any country to enter North Korea since the pandemic arrive at the
Pyongyang International Airport in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Feb.
9, 2024. (AP Photo/Cha Song Ho, File)
This signals how much North Korea and Russia have moved closer to
each other as the North has supplied weapons and troops to Russia to
support its war against Ukraine. Ties between North Korea and China
cooled as China showed its reluctance to join a three-way, anti-U.S.
alliance with North Korea and Russia, experts say.
Before the pandemic, tourism was an easy, legitimate source for
foreign currency for North Korea, one of the world’s most sanctioned
countries because of its nuclear program.
North Korea is expected to open a massive tourism site on the east
coast in June. In January when President Donald Trump boasted about
his ties with Kim Jong Un, he said that "I think he has tremendous
condo capabilities. He’s got a lot of shoreline.” That likely refers
to the eastern coast site.
A return of Chinese tourists would be key to making North Korea's
tourism industry lucrative because they represented more than 90% of
total international tourists before the pandemic, said Lee Sangkeun,
an expert at the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think
tank run by South Korea's intelligence agency. He said that in the
past, up to 300,000 Chinese tourists visited North Korea annually.
“North Korea has been heavily investing on tourism sites, but there
have been not much domestic demand,” Lee said. “We can assess that
North Korea now wants to resume international tourism to bring in
many tourists from abroad.”
The restrictions that North Korea has typically imposed on foreign
travelers — such as requirements that they move with local guides
and the banning of photography at sensitive places — will likely
hurt its efforts to develop tourism. Lee said that Rason, the
eastern coast site and Pyongyang would be the places where North
Korea feels it can easily monitor and control foreign tourists.
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