SEOUL (Reuters) – A report from Russian provincial officials and a Western tour guide indicates that a party of Russian tourists is expected to be the first known visitors let into North Korea since anti-pandemic border lockdowns started in early 2020.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, North Korea implemented the of the tightest border controls in the world, and it hasn’t opened up to outsiders completely yet.
The governor of Russia’s far eastern Primorsky Krai region, which borders North Korea, visited Pyongyang for discussions in December, which arranged the trip, which was promoted by a Vladivostok-based agency, the regional administration stated in a message on Telegram this week.
An online schedule states that the four-day excursion would leave on February 9 and stop in Pyongyang and a ski resort.
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General manager Simon Cockerell of Beijing-based Koryo Tours, which is not organizing the trip, told Reuters that his North Korean contacts have verified the Russian visit is happening under unique conditions.
“It is a good sign, but I would hesitate to say it necessarily will lead to a broader opening due to the special circumstances for this one trip,” he stated. “But given that no tourists have been for four-plus years, any tourism trip can be viewed as a positive step forward.”
Despite international sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un agreed to intensify their collaboration on the political, military, and economic fronts during their meeting in eastern Russia in September.
Resolutions of the U.N. Security Council that impose restrictions on trade with North Korea due to its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs mainly have little effect on tourism.
Prior to the start of the epidemic, North Korea experienced a spike in Chinese visitors, who might have brought in an additional $175 million in income for the financially impoverished nation in 2019, as estimated by Seoul-based NK News.
