North Korea reopens to foreign tourists for first time since pandemic


North Korea reopens to foreign tourists for first time since pandemic

Published 20 Feb 2025 North Korea is welcoming foreign tourists for the first time since closing its borders in January 2020 due to the Covid pandemic, with a limited number of tour operators set to lead visitors into the country’s Rason Special Economic Zone this week. Among the first to return was Australian tour manager Rowan Beard. In an interview with The Straits Times, Mr Beard said his arrival at North Korean immigration was met with surprise and excitement. “At first, the North Korean immigration official was like, ‘You Russian?’ and I replied, ‘No, I’m Australian’ and handed him my passport,” Mr Beard of the Young Pioneer Tours said. The officer quickly alerted colleagues, who gathered around to examine his passport. He was part of a small delegation of travel operators invited to assess conditions in Rason ahead of its reopening to tourists on 20 February. His company, along with Koryo Tours from Beijing, is running the first trips to the isolated country, leading groups of around 15 visitors each. The itineraries include visits to a local brewery, a foreign language school, a taekwondo academy, and a site where the North Korean, Chinese and Russian borders intersect. North Korea, largely sealed off since the pandemic began, is taking cautious steps to revive tourism. Rason, established in 1991 to attract foreign investment, was never as popular a destination as the capital Pyongyang, which remains closed to all but Russian tourists. Before the pandemic, Chinese visitors accounted for about 90 per cent of all foreign arrivals, with 350,000 entering in 2019 alone, reported The Straits Times. The resumption of tours comes amid a thaw in Pyongyang’s relations with Beijing. A Chinese travel agency confirmed on 18 February that it had received approval to restart trips and was accepting bookings for a group scheduled to visit Rason on 24 February. Mr Beard said demand for the first tours was overwhelming. “In the first five minutes, our inbox started getting smashed with all the inquiries coming in. We were being ‘attacked’ from all angles from people wanting more details and to book and to be one of the first to return,” he said. The clientele for North Korean tours is typically drawn from Australia, Canada and Europe, with some visitors from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore.