Latest news with #KTGTours
Fox News
07-03-2025
- Fox News
Traveler goes viral for trip to one of the most secretive places on Earth
A British traveler recently went viral after documenting his unique experience as being one of the first Western tourists to visit North Korea in over half a decade. Mike O'Kennedy boasts more than half a million followers on his YouTube channel, Mike Okay. His travel documentary about his journey to North Korea, "Inside North Korea After 5 Years of Isolation," accrued over 3 million views in the first week since being posted on Feb. 28. O'Kennedy, who said that he likes to "do things as uncensored as possible," spoke with Fox News Digital about his experience visiting the isolated country. He arrived in the city of Rason on Feb. 20. "My main kind of takeaway was that this is an incredibly developing country that is, you know, at least 50 years behind anyone else," O'Kennedy said. "It's where China was… in the mid[dle] of the last century." "I'm not qualified to talk about it politically," he continued. "But what I can say is, it's an incredibly proud country." O'Kennedy's candid video of the trip showed several strange situations; while flying over North Korea, he and his fellow plane passengers were required to keep their window blinds closed to prevent them from seeing the country from the air. North Korea partially resumed international tourism last year after nearly half a decade, according to tourist operators. "The Hermit Kingdom" closed its borders at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, banning almost all outsiders from entering the country for business, travel or non-vital diplomatic relations. The country partially re-opened its borders in 2023, Fox News Digital reported. However, reports now say that trips to North Korea, as of Thursday, have been canceled. "Just received news from our Korean partners that Rason is closed to everyone. We will keep you posted," China-based KTG Tours, which specializes in North Korean tours, said Wednesday on Facebook, as BBC reported. Since O'Kennedy's visit, North Korea has once again closed its borders, suspending foreign tourism just weeks after it welcomed its first Western visitors. At one point in his documentary, O'Kennedy tries opening a window in his hotel room before realizing it's been sealed shut. "There were times where you could cut the tension with a knife. You could feel the weight of this moment." He told Fox News Digital that there was "pressure on the whole situation." "This is the first time any foreign tourists and non-Russian and non-Chinese tourists have entered the country for five years," he said. "So, there were times where you could cut the tension with a knife. You could feel the weight of this moment." Though O'Kennedy wasn't granted the freedoms he would normally enjoy during his travels – such as interacting with locals, using the bathroom without permission and taking solo walks – he was still acutely aware of the special treatment that he and his fellow tourists were getting. "Instead of it being like, 'We're not allowed to see this because that's secret,' … it was just more that they just wanted to show you the best it had to offer," he said. "I didn't have this overwhelming feeling that this is a bad place." "There were plenty of enjoyable moments…it was just they were just shrouded by a constant kind of level of subtle buzz, of paranoia and anxiety." O'Kennedy said he witnessed dozens of enthusiastic children from Rason perform a song and dance dedicated to leader Kim Jong Un. The show included futuristic space costumes, a light show and visuals of rockets. "Almost every song that comes out of the DPRK is, as expected, a tool of worship towards the country's current or former leaders," he narrates in the video. "The recurring theme throughout this trip was the utter devotion people had towards Kim Jong Un…to them, he's a god." "We did karaoke one night…drinking North Korean soju [and] North Korean beer, which is delicious, by the way." But the expert traveler also said that he enjoyed simple pleasures on the trip, such as North Korean beer – though the food left something to be desired. "We did karaoke one night…drinking North Korean soju [and] North Korean beer, which is delicious, by the way," O'Kennedy recounted. "Smoking North Korean cigarettes with all guides, and singing karaoke with them. And that was pretty cool. That was a pretty fun thing to do." "The food was nothing to write home about for me. It didn't feel like anything I'd really had in Asia before. Maybe towards the weirder side of, like, Chinese cuisine with, like…sea slugs and clams. And we had a flaming snail at one point." O'Kennedy also said that he had never encountered an area remotely similar to North Korea before. The Uyghur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang in northwestern China was the only place that came close. "I was doing a lot of hitchhiking and stuff [in Xinjiang], and the police would just pop up out of nowhere a few times…they don't get any foreigners out there at all, really," he said. "So, there was a level of kind of control and curiosity, but not on the same level as [North Korea] was. This was very restricted to the point where it sometimes felt a little bit claustrophobic." O'Kennedy said he expects that tourism in North Korea will go back to its restricted, pre-pandemic levels. He also hopes that more tourists get the chance to interact with North Koreans.
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
North Korea halts tourism visits with no reason cited
March 6 (UPI) -- North Korean officials have suspended foreign tourism visits to the insular nation about a month after lifting restrictions for Western tourists, but did not say why the change was made. Several tour companies that organize tourist visits to North Korea announced Wednesday that the North Korean government notified them all tourism is canceled until further notice, the BBC reported. "Just received news from our Korean partners that Rason is closed to everyone," China-based tourism company KTG Tours announced on Facebook. "We will keep you posted." Other tour organizers advised clients to avoid booking flights until the matter is resolved. Tour operators began supporting Western tourism to Rason on Feb. 20, but visitors' movements were more restricted than before the pandemic. Tourists weren't as capable of wandering local streets and talking to locals in Rason as they were prior to the pandemic, the BBC reported. Tourists also lacked access to the Internet and cellular phone services. The unexpected cessation of North Korean tourism comes a month ahead of the April 6 Pyongyang Marathon. Before the pandemic, North Korea received about 350,000 foreign tourists -- about 90% of whom were from China. North Korea closed its borders in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic and began to lift those restrictions in 2023. A Russian tourist group was the first welcomed into North Korea in February 2024, but visitors from the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and France weren't allowed to visit until February, NBC News reported. The Russian tourist groups were allowed to visit the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, but those from other nations are restricted to Rason, which is a port city on the Sea of Japan in northeastern North Korea and about 500 miles northeast of Pyongyang. North Korean leaders have declared Rason a special economic zone and allowed tourist groups to visit factories and shops in the city and view statues of former North Korean leaders.
Euronews
06-03-2025
- Business
- Euronews
North Korea suspends foreign tours to border city just weeks after reopening
North Korea has suspended foreign tourism to the border city of Rason, weeks after allowing a group of international travellers to enter the nation for the first time in five years, according to tour companies. This week, two Western tour operators — Koryo Tours and Young Pioneer Tours (YPT) — and China-based KTG Tours announced the suspension of trips to the hermit state. "Just received news from our Korean partners that Rason is closed to everyone. We will keep you posted," KTG Tours, which specialises in North Korean travel, said on Facebook. People planning North Korea tours in April and May should refrain from booking flights "until we have more information", YPT said in a Facebook post. Last month, 13 travellers from the UK, Canada, Greece, New Zealand, France, Germany, Austria, Australia and Italy visited the northeastern city of Rason — where the country's special economic zone is located — for a five-day trip organised by Koryo Tours. The travel company's manager, Simon Cockerell, said the visitors crossed into North Korea by land from China. Whilst inside the country, they visited factories, shops, schools and statues of the country's first two supreme leaders, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. They were the first non-Russian visitors to enter North Korea since it shut its borders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2022, the nation has been slowly scaling back restrictions and reopening its borders, with some 880 Russian tourists visiting the country throughout last year, according to South Korea's Unification Ministry. Stricter restrictions Before the pandemic, tourism was an easy, legitimate source of foreign currency for North Korea, one of the world's most sanctioned countries due to its nuclear programme. At least 300,000 Chinese tourists visited North Korea annually pre-pandemic— representing more than 90% of total international visitors — according to the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank run by South Korea's intelligence agency. Yet experts have said the restrictions that North Korea has typically imposed on foreign travellers, such as requirements that they move with local guides and the banning of photography at sensitive places, will likely hurt its efforts to develop tourism. Koryo Tours told the BBC that the group's movements in Rason were more restricted than on previous trips — they had fewer chances to wander the streets and talk to locals. The tour company said earlier this week that it was accepting international applications for the Pyongyang Marathon for the first time since the pandemic. However, whether those applications will be processed for the 6 April event is now unclear. North Korea is expected to open a massive tourism site on its east coast in June. In January, when US President Donald Trump boasted about his relationship with Kim Jong-un, he said: "I think he has tremendous condo capabilities. He's got a lot of shoreline". Lee Sangkeun, an expert at the Institute for National Security Strategy, said that Rason, the eastern coast site and the capital Pyongyang would be the places where North Korea's authorities believe they can easily monitor and control foreign tourists.
BBC News
06-03-2025
- BBC News
North Korea halts tourism just weeks after reopening
North Korea has stopped tourists from visiting, just weeks after the first Western tourists entered the country for the first time in five Korea sealed itself off at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, and started to scale back restrictions in the middle of 2023. It opened up to Russian visitors in 2024, but it was only last month that Western tourists were allowed into the remote, eastern city several tour companies now say that trips to the reclusive country have been cancelled until further notice. Pyongyang has not given a reason for the sudden halt. "Just received news from our Korean partners that Rason is closed to everyone. We will keep you posted," China-based KTG Tours, which specialises in North Korean tours, said Wednesday on Pioneer Tours and Koryo Tours were among the other agencies that have announced the suspension. Those planning tours in April and May should refrain from booking flights "until we have more information", Young Pioneer Tours said in a Facebook 20 February, the first Western tourists started arriving in Rason, a city earmarked by the North as a special economic zone, to trial new financial operators told the BBC the visitors' movements were even more restricted than on pre-pandemic trips - they had fewer opportunities to wander the streets and talk to locals. Phone signals and internet access were also not available in the hermit state. One tour leader said he suspects Rason was picked because the area is relatively contained and easy to control. Earlier this week, Koryo Tours said it was accepting international applications for the Pyongyang Marathon for the first time in five years. The event is scheduled for 6 April but it is now unclear if these can still be Korea saw some 350,000 foreign tourists in 2019, of whom 90% were Chinese, according to media reports.
