North Korea plans to welcome foreign tourists again at the end of the year, travel agencies say, but experts warn that the long-awaited opening could come at the expense of political tensions and the country’s harsh winter.
North Korea quickly sealed its borders and banned international visitors as the COVID-19 pandemic spread in early 2020, fearing the virus would further damage its already fragile health services. The blockade hit trade with China and cut off the Pyongyang government from tourists, while North Korea’s supreme leader, Kim Jong Un, reportedly fled to his coastal villa.
International flights to North Korea resumed last year and around 100 Russian tourists took a private tour in February, but the country remains effectively closed to outsiders.
The decision to lower the drawbridge has been welcomed by travel companies, but some North Korea watchers say the plan to restart tourism after almost five years of pandemic-induced isolation is riddled with problems.
North Korean state media has yet to comment on the reported opening, but Kim Jong Un has expressed a personal interest in developing tourism infrastructure and said he wants to welcome tourists from “friendly” countries China and Russia.
Since North Korea banned foreign tourists in 2020, the official motivation has remained largely the same: presenting a modern, fulfilling nation centered on its people’s unwavering loyalty to three generations of the Kim dynasty.
Initial visits are expected to be restricted to Samjiyon, a city near the Chinese border that North Korea describes as a “socialist utopia” and a “model of a highly civilized mountain town.”
The tourist destination, which is said to be home to new apartments, hotels and ski slopes, is a gateway to Mount Paektu, the peninsula’s highest peak and the mythical birthplace of a unified Korean people, and a pilgrimage site that supports the personality cult surrounding the family that has ruled with an iron fist since the country’s founding in 1948.
Koryo Tours, which was forced to suspend tourism at the start of the pandemic, welcomed reports of the resumption of tourism, adding that the move would probably spread to other parts of the country.
“After waiting more than four years to make this announcement, Koryo Tours is excited that tourism to North Korea will once again be allowed,” the Beijing-based company said on its website, adding that its local partners would announce itineraries and dates in the coming weeks.
A second travel agency, KTG Tours, based in Shenyang, also announced that tourists will be able to visit Samjiyon starting this winter.
But some experts say the plan could run up against harsh winter weather in the remote Samjiyon region, poor local infrastructure and Westerners’ reluctance to travel to a country that has become increasingly aggressive in recent years.
“It seems odd that Samjiyon, one of North Korea’s more isolated tourist destinations, would be the first place the South Koreans would open up to the wider tourist market,” said Rowan Beard, manager of Young Pioneer Tours. NK News The website lists the country’s official name as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Travel industry sources said they expected the first wave of tourists to be dominated by Chinese and, given recent meetings between Kim Jong Un and President Vladimir Putin, Russians.
“I suspect the powers that be in Pyongyang believe that once the pandemic is over, it’s time to open up the borders, just like other ‘normal’ countries have done,” said Dean J. Ouellet, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Institute of Far Eastern Studies and an expert on North Korea tourism.
“That means opening up to tourists from overseas, regardless of whether many of them decide to go, whether they are allowed to visit by their government, or whether they are allowed entry by North Korean authorities because of their nationality.”
China is by far North Korea’s most important market, accounting for about 90% of tourists to North Korea before COVID-19. Experts say the number of foreign tourists visiting North Korea in 2019 reached a record high of 300,000, bringing in between $90 million and $150 million in revenue for the country.
North Korea is not dependent on tourism for hard currency, but the cash injection could bolster its finances. “If Chinese tourists return to their prime, North Korea could earn $100 million to $175 million,” Ouellet said. “That’s no small amount for an economy like North Korea, which is heavily sanctioned and isolated.”
But Chinese leaders have expressed concern about North Korea’s arms supplies to Russian forces in Ukraine and are watching Kim Jong Un’s close ties with Putin with caution. “Tourist numbers will not return to their previous high levels until Pyongyang repairs its ties with Beijing,” Ouellet said.
Tourism to North Korea was heavily restricted even before the pandemic, with around 5,000 Western tourists visiting the country each year, according to travel agencies. Americans made up about 20% of North Korea’s tourism market before the death of college student Otto Warmbier in 2017 and the U.S. ban on tourist travel to North Korea.
Cockerell said much about travel itineraries is still to be decided, but tourists will continue to be closely monitored. “The key systems will remain unchanged, guided tours only, no free movement unguided,” he said. “So when key parts of the country reopen, it’s likely to be a similar experience to before.”
“I would caution against overinterpreting this opening. This is not necessarily a message to the world or anything like that. It’s just a slow, small, initial opening to re-stabilize an industry that has been around for decades.”
