North Korea is slowly beginning to reopen its borders.
For nearly five years, North Korea’s borders have remained closed to foreign travelers due to restrictions put in place during the pandemic. Now, the country is gearing up to gradually reopen for tourism, starting with the city of Samjiyon, BBC News reported on Thursday.
In January 2020, North Korea was the first country in the world to go into lockdown and shut its international borders amid the Covid-19 outbreak. Since then, the country has been sluggish in lifting the closures. But those constraints are easing. Last August, Air Koryo carried out its first commercial flight in three years between Beijing and Pyongyang. Around the same time, North Korea announced that it would allow citizens living abroad to return home with the caveat of completing a one-week quarantine upon arrival.
According to BBC, China-based tour operators have recently revealed plans to restart tourism in certain parts of North Korea. “We have received confirmation from our local partner that tourism to Samjiyon and likely the rest of the country will officially resume in December 2024,” Beijing’s Koryo Tours wrote on its website. “Having waited for over four years to make this announcement, Koryo Tours is very excited for the opening of North Korean tourism once again.”
Separately, Shenyang’s KTG Tours announced the news in a post on its Facebook page. “So far just Samjiyon has been officially confirmed but we think that Pyongyang and other places will open too!!!”
Interested travelers will have to stay tuned for itinerary dates, which will reportedly be released in the coming weeks. Samjiyon is located in North Korea’s Ryanggang Province, positioned near Mount Paektu—the highest peak on the Korean peninsula. The resort town gets its name from the three lakes in the area and is home to Samjiyon Grand Monument. In addition, it hosts an annual ice sculpture festival every winter.
“Samjiyon is the most famous region in North Korea in the winter for tourism and is the home to the country’s famous volcanic mountain Mt. Paektu,” Koryo Tours said on its website. “In North Korea, it is seen as the birthplace of the revolution and the reputed birthplace of Kim Jong Il. For the South, it is the birthplace of the Korean people. For the whole Korean Peninsula, it is the most significant and sacred place.”
