North Korea will reopen to international tourism this winter, tour operators say

Chinese tourists pose for photos on Kim Il Sung Square in 2019. (Ed Jones / AFP / Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

North Korea is to reopen limited international tourism by the end of 2024, nearly five years after it completely sealed the country’s borders due to the COVID-19 pandemic, two tour companies with connections to the isolated country have announced.

Beijing-based Koryo Tours and Shenyang-based KTG Tours both made separate online announcements Wednesday, saying tour groups would be allowed to visit the mountainous city of Samjiyon, the purported birthplace of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

“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,” Koryo Tours said, adding that itinerary and further details will be finalized “in the coming days and weeks.”

In a separate Facebook post, KTG Tours also said exact dates for the tours were to be confirmed. “So far just Samjiyon has been mentioned but we think that PY [Pyongyang] and other places will open too!”

Samjiyon straddles the Chinese border and is close to the highest peak on the Korean Peninsula, Mount Paektu, an active volcano of paramount importance and historic significance to both North and South Koreans, as it is considered the cradle of the Korean people.

Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea, in April 2020, shortly after the country closed its borders due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Kim Won Jin / AFP / Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

The 'Paektu' bloodline

Though South Koreans are restricted from visiting the North, South Korea’s former president Moon Jae-in and then first lady Kim Jung-sook visited the top of the mountain with Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol Ju in 2018, underlining the symbolism of the mountain.

Visiting the summit of Mount Paektu is akin to making a religious pilgrimage for North Koreans. The fabled “Paektu” bloodline is what gives the ruling Kim family legitimacy, say observers, who note Western historians’ conflicting claims the second-generation leader was born in Russia.

Samjiyon was once a popular destination for Chinese tourists, who used to arrive by busload prior to Covid-19. Tourism provided North Korea with revenue despite international sanctions over Pyongyang’s illegal nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un personally inspected construction sites within Samjiyon earlier in July, state media reported.

North Korean state media have so far not reported changes concerning the country reopening in a limited capacity to foreign visitors, but North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has previously indicated he would prioritize visitors from “friendly” nations, which include Russia and China.

The road to reopening

The pandemic left North Korea’s borders hermetically sealed from nearly all of the outside world for several years – restrictions that largely continue except for small tour groups from Russia – who were allowed to enter this year amid Kim’s deepening partnership with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.

About 100 Russian tourists were welcomed in North Korea earlier this year, traveling via a North Korean-owned Air Koryo plane from Vladivostok.

But pandemic border restrictions forced most diplomatic missions and international nonprofits to pull out of North Korea, leaving the impoverished nation of around 25 million arguably the most isolated it has been since the Cold War.

United States passports are not valid for travel to, in, or through North Korea, unless they are specially validated by the US Department of State. The department classifies North Korea as “Level 4: do not travel.”

The announcements to reopen tourism come about a month after Kim visited a new beachside tourism site, the Wonsan-Kalma zone, currently under development on the country’s eastern coast.

Kim said the resort would open in May 2025, after years of construction delays due to the Covid pandemic and United Nations sanctions, state news agency KCNA reported.