Kim Jong-un wishes ” revitalize tourism ” to welcome “friendly” foreign travelers. A rather mysterious statement given that the country has been under double lockdown since January 2020. Over the past four years, only a few Russian tourists have been able to visit the country as part of the rapprochement between Pyongyang and Moscow.
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Travels under the supervision of local guides who dictate the many rules to be respected to the rare foreign tourists. Every month, Zoe Stephens used to take travelers to discover the very closed North Korea. For more than four years, the British tour guide of Koryo Tours has no longer had access to her place of work.
” For the past year and a half, we have been constantly given the same information, saying that it is coming soon. A few months ago, we were even told: “pack your bags, because this should open at any moment”. But in the end, each time, it was a false alarm and the country is still not open. »
Koryo Tours specializes in tours of North Korea for Westerners. And some experts fear that only Pyongyang’s allies, such as Russia and China, will be allowed to return. But Zoe Stephens remains optimistic.
“ You just have to look at the political situation to understand why the Russians were able to get access. It wasn’t Xi Jinping who went there recently, it was Putin. We don’t see the Russians’ travel as a return of tourism, these are very special circumstances. And I think that when they are ready to resume, they will open to the Chinese and other foreigners, but that’s just my prediction… »
A sign of hope this week: UN aid workers were able to enter North Korea. A first since 2021.
Read alsoRussian tourists expected in North Korea after Moscow-Pyongyang rapprochement