North Korea is tentatively reopening its country to tourism following the closure of its borders during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
A tour operator has begun reopening bookings to see Rason, a city that neighbors the countries of China and Russia, ahead of the birthday celebrations for the late Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s former supreme leader.
Koryo Tours, a Beijing-based travel company, is offering four nights in Rason and two nights in Yanji, a Chinese city, from Feb. 12 to 18. Some of the tourist stops will include the Sea Cucumber Breeding Farm, Paekhaksan Combined Foodstuff Processing Factory, and the Golden Triangle Bank.
The tour will require driving across the Chinese border because the city does not have a nearby international airport. There are reportedly questions about whether the Chinese checkpoint will be ready for the tours.
Tourists will not be able to visit the capital city of Pyongyang.
On Feb. 16, North Korea had large parades and displays to celebrate the Day of the Shining Star.
Before the pandemic, the country allowed hundreds of thousands of tourists, which provided extra revenue for the country.
During President Donald Trump’s first term, he made historic overtures to build a diplomatic relationship with North Korea’s current leader King Jong Un.
Marco Rubio, who now serves as Trump’s secretary of state, referenced North Korea and Iran as “rogue states” during in a Jan. 30 interview on The Megyn Kelly Show.
The North Korean Foreign Ministry issued a statement that slammed Rubio’s statements as “coarse and nonsensical.”
“The hostile words and deeds of the person who is in charge of the U.S. foreign policy served as an occasion of confirming once again the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK which remains unchanged,” the statement continued.
During the presidential campaign, Trump addressed his relationship with Kim while talking to internet influencer Adin Ross.
“This man I really get along with well,” the president said during the August 2024 interview.
The two leaders had met at historic summits in 2018 and 2019.
Trump called Kim “very smart” and “very strong” during the interview with Ross.
The real estate mogul shared that he had encouraged the North Korean leader to begin thinking of his country as a revenue generator if he were to optimize it as a potential tourist destination and for its oceanfront real estate.
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“He’s right between, think of this, Russia and China on one side and South Korea on the other. I said, ‘You have a great piece of real estate. You could make so much and you could have gorgeous condos going up on your shore.’ He has got a lot of ocean … a lot of oceanfront,” Trump retold his conversation with Kim.
The announcement of tours into North Korea in February come at the same time the president has suggested the U.S. help reinvent the Gaza Strip from a terrorist-run stronghold to “the Riviera Of The Middle East.” Trump’s son-in-law and businessman Jared Kushner had also said at a Harvard University event in Feb. 2024 that “Gaza’s waterfront property, it could be very valuable.”
