North Korea Reopens Borders For Foreign Tourists First Time Since COVID 19 (image @Pixabay)
For the first time since locking down borders in 2020, North Korea is welcoming foreign tourists. A limited number of tour operators are assigned to lead visitors into the country’s Rason Special Economic Zone this week. Pyongyang closed the borders due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Australian tour manager Rowan Beard was the first to return. During an interview with The Straits Times, Beard said his arrival at North Korean immigration was met with surprise and excitement. “At first, the North Korean immigration official was like, ‘You Russian?’ and I replied, ‘No, I’m Australian’ and handed him my passport.”
Beard, along with his company Koryo Tours from Beijing, is running the first trips to the isolated country, leading groups of around 15 visitors each. The itineraries include visits to a local brewery, a foreign language school, a taekwondo academy, and a site where the North Korean, Chinese, and Russian borders intersect, as per media reports.
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While Rason is open, the country’s capital, Pyongyang, remains closed for all except for Russian citizens. Rason, established in 1991, is not as popular as Pyongyang.
Before the closing of the borders due to Covid-19, Chinese visitors accounted for about 90 percent of all foreign arrivals, with 350,000 entering in 2019 alone, reported The Straits Times.
According to Beard, the demand for tours was overwhelming. “In the first five minutes, our inbox started getting smashed with all the enquiries coming in. We were being ‘attacked’ from all angles from people wanting more details and to book and to be one of the first to return,” he said.
Usually, the visitors to the isolated nations are from Australia, Canada, Europe, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. While the South Koreans are banned from entering the country, the US has prohibited its citizens from travelling to North Korea since 2017. The move followed the detention and subsequent death of American student Otto Warmbier.
While the country is keen on receiving tourists, some restrictions are still on the plate. Local markets, once a key attraction for foreign visitors, are currently off-limits due to lingering concerns over Covid. Strict health measures, including mask-wearing and temperature checks, remain in place at various locations.
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According to the report, despite the border closing, Rason is doing fine economically. There has been speculation that Pyongyang is reopening tourism to generate much-needed revenue, with estimates suggesting the industry could bring in almost $175m annually.
Beard does not agree with the criticism that money from tourism is going to the country’s weapons program. He said, “I have seen this money go back into the tourism infrastructure they have. This is what pays the staff, puts fuel in the bucket, pays for the running of the hotels…Sure, some percentage goes back to the government, but is it enough to put plutonium into a nuclear missile? I don’t think so.”
Gergo Vaczi, the chief representative of Koryo Tours, said that the country has made subtle ideological shifts during its years of isolation. He Vaczi observed that Pyongyang’s language towards South Korea has changed, with state media referring to it as the “Republic of Korea” instead of the traditional “South Chosun.”
Additionally, world maps in hotels and schools, which previously highlighted the entire Korean peninsula in red, now only mark North Korea, as quoted by the report.
(With inputs from agencies)
