North Korea is welcoming foreign tourists for the first time since closing its borders in January 2020 due to the Covid pandemic, with a limited number of tour operators set to lead visitors into the country’s Rason Special Economic Zone this week.
Among the first to return was Australian tour manager Rowan Beard.
In an interview with The Straits Times, Mr 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,” Mr Beard of the Young Pioneer Tours said. The officer quickly alerted colleagues, who gathered around to examine his passport.
He was part of a small delegation of travel operators invited to assess conditions in Rason ahead of its reopening to tourists on 20 February. His company, along with 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.
North Korea, largely sealed off since the pandemic began, is taking cautious steps to revive tourism. Rason, established in 1991 to attract foreign investment, was never as popular a destination as the capital Pyongyang, which remains closed to all but Russian tourists.
Before the pandemic, Chinese visitors accounted for about 90 per cent of all foreign arrivals, with 350,000 entering in 2019 alone, reported The Straits Times.
The resumption of tours comes amid a thaw in Pyongyang’s relations with Beijing. A Chinese travel agency confirmed on 18 February that it had received approval to restart trips and was accepting bookings for a group scheduled to visit Rason on 24 February.
Mr Beard said demand for the first tours was overwhelming. “In the first five minutes, our inbox started getting smashed with all the inquiries 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.
The clientele for North Korean tours is typically drawn from Australia, Canada and Europe, with some visitors from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore.
South Koreans remain barred from entry and the US has prohibited its citizens from travelling to North Korea since 2017 following the detention and subsequent death of American student Otto Warmbier.
While North Korea is keen to revive tourism, some restrictions remain in place. 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.
Gergo Vaczi, the chief representative of Koryo Tours, said North Korean guides expressed a mix of excitement and apprehension over the return of tourists. “Because they haven’t had tourists for five years, the guides feel like they are out of practice. They are anxious about their English,” he said.
In spite of the prolonged border closure, Mr Beard and Mr Vaczi said they have seen no visible signs of economic distress in Rason. 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.
While some critics argue that tourist spending could support North Korea’s weapons programme, Mr Beard disagreed. “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,” the manager said. “Sure, some percentage goes back to the government, but is it enough to put plutonium into a nuclear missile? I don’t think so.”
North Korea has also made subtle ideological shifts during its years of isolation. Mr 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.
Professor Mimura Mitsuhiro, from the University of Niigata Prefecture in Japan, noted that while tourism is not a major contributor to North Korea’s economy, it plays a role in supporting the sector and offering a rare glimpse into the outside world.
Dr Yee Ji Sun, a researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said North Korea’s reopening could be part of an effort to reshape its international image. “The return of tourists could help reshape North Korea’s reputation, shifting it from a ‘dangerous country’ in the eyes of the international community to a potentially ‘safe’ travel destination,” she said.
While US citizens remain banned from visiting North Korea due to travel restrictions imposed in 2017 after the death of Warmbier, a handful of Western tourists have found ways around such bans. American filmmaker Justin Martell, for instance, obtained a second passport at significant personal cost to gain entry.
Mr Martell, who recently visited North Korea, observed that the country remains highly cautious about Covid. He heard theories while in the country that the virus entered via balloons sent from South Korea.
His observations align with those of tour operators who note that while enthusiasm for tourism’s return is high, the process of rebuilding access and trust will take time.
Mr Beard remains optimistic, however. “I’m over the moon that the first group’s going this week,” he said, “but it’s a hard reboot, and it’ll take time to find that balance.”
