Travel agencies say North Korea has reopened border city to tourism

Tour operators said on Jan 16 that North Korea had reopened a border city to foreign tourists, five years after Pyongyang sealed its frontiers in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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BEIJING -

North Korea shut its borders in early 2020 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, and later bolstered defenses along its northern boundary with China to deter its own nationals from re-entering the country illegally.

Pyongyang has since reopened the border to some trade and official delegations, and North Korea in 2024 permitted Russian tourists to enter the country for the first time since the pandemic.

On Jan 16, two tour operators with links in China and another based in Spain said they had been notified that foreign travelers could now visit the north-eastern North Korean city of Rason.