North Korea will reopen to foreign tourists in December after banning them from entering for nearly five years due to COVID-19, two travel companies said Wednesday.
“We have received confirmation from our local partner that tourism in Samjiyon and potentially the rest of the country will officially resume in December 2024,” Beijing-based Koryo Tours said on its website.
The town of Samjiyon, near North Korea's northern border with China, is a gateway to Mount Paektu, where, according to official accounts, late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was born.
His son and successor, Kim Jong Un, has invested huge sums of money in developing the area, including new apartments, hotels and a ski resort.
KTG Tours, also based in China, wrote on its Facebook page that it had been told tourists would be able to visit Samjiyon "this winter."
“The exact dates are yet to be confirmed. So far, only Samjiyon has been officially confirmed but we believe Pyongyang and other places will open as well!” the tour operator added.
North Korea closed its borders in early 2020 to protect itself from Covid-19 and even prevented its own citizens from entering for years.
But signs of a reopening began to emerge in the second half of 2023, with the resumption of flights allowing North Koreans stranded abroad to finally return home.
And a group of Russian tourists went to North Korea in February 2024, at a time when ties with Moscow were strengthening.
Before the pandemic, international tourism to the country was limited, with tour operators saying some 5,000 Westerners visited each year.
Americans alone accounted for nearly 201,300 of that market before Washington banned travel to North Korea following the imprisonment and death, after repatriation to the United States in 2017, of student Otto Warmbier.
Koryo Tours warned, however, that after a hiatus of about five years, "things might be a little more chaotic than usual" for the first foreigners to visit North Korea again.
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