Latest news with #KoryoTours
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
North Korea invited Western influencers. Now it has closed its borders again. What happened?
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea — also known as the DPRK or North Korea — is a highly secretive, centralized totalitarian state, maintaining strict media and political control and disallowing immigration and emigration. However, the country does occasionally permit tourism. International visitors have returned to the DPRK for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic resealed the North Korean border. Visitors from Russia, an ally of the DPRK, traveled to Pyongyang, the capital, in February 2024; in February 2025, visitors from Britain, Canada, France and Germany arrived in the city of Rason. But after just a few short weeks of visits, North Korea has once again closed its borders. What went wrong? In a word: YouTube. The DPRK is home to beaches, lofty mountains, sacred Buddhist temples, the tombs of ancient kings and multiple UNESCO World heritage sites — all under the purview of Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, who has been in office since 2011. State television is carefully censored and tries to project an image of strength and government support. Nevertheless, in the age of influencers, controversial videos and clickbait, it is tough to control such a media image. Pyongyang has occasionally made international ventures, and in the past, has allowed international tourists to visit more frequently than it does now. In particular, the government hosted the first Pyongyang International Marathon in six years in April 2025 and invited 200 international competitors, who quickly swallowed up the spots, spending thousands of Euros in the process. Among them were many influencers, including British social media influencer Harry Jaggard. He said that 10% of people who came for the marathon were athletes. The other 90% were social media influencers. 'The tour guides definitely weren't expecting it ... they said they'd never seen this many cameras pointing at them,' said Jaggard. 'One of the rules they told us was you gotta ask to film. ... People were filming in places they shouldn't be film(ing),' he added. The influencers were permitted to travel among real people, though always accompanied by a tour guide and occasionally paid actors. The influencers posed tough questions, including asking Jaggard's questions about Kim Jong Un's daughter and the succession of the supreme leader — apparently throwing off the careful rhythm of DPRK tours, according to Jaggard's footage, which was published by CNN. Many recent tourist groups have traveled with British travel agency Koryo Tours, which offers a rare window into the DPRK. It has run international tours to North Korea for 32 years, but not without frequent cancellations from the North Korean government and the occasional international incident — including the mass cancellations that followed the influencer visit. 'There's some people in Pyongyang who looked at the footage that came out from those YouTubers and thought it didn't reflect positively,' said Justin Martell, an American guide who operates tours to North Korea. Hundreds of visas for upcoming events were canceled, including visas for Chinese and Russian visitors. Martell reported that the North Korean government said the cancellations were made 'in the national interest.' During his first term, President Donald Trump made history by visiting Kim Jong Un in the demilitarized zone and actually crossing into North Korea. He was the first incumbent U.S. president to do so. Kim appeared 'overjoyed' at the meeting and seemed to desire a more positive shared future with America, calling his relationship with Trump 'excellent.' That visit was in 2019. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic circled the world, abruptly shutting off relations with the DPRK. According to Axios, Trump has been quietly planning more dialogue with North Korea. Kim has recently made 'alarming' nuclear advancements and the American government has indicated interest in reconnecting with the DPRK — perhaps to further encourage disarmament. 'We are convening agencies to understand where the North Koreans are today,' said a senior U.S. official privy to the matter. 'A lot has changed in the last four years. We are evaluating, diagnosing and talking about potential avenues, including engagement.' New survey results indicate growing support for a relationship with the DPRK. A majority of American adults (70%) believe that Trump should again meet with Kim and that the U.S. should collaborate with North Korea to reunite Korean-Americans with their North Korean family members. Half say that the U.S. should formally end the Korean War by signing a peace agreement. For context, many of the countries formally agreed to an armistice in 1953. South Korea did not. The war did not officially end, but the Korean peninsula largely remains at peace. The demilitarized zone, or the DMZ, signals the borders between the two countries. Since then, efforts have been made to formally end the war, most recently in 2018, but they have so far failed.
South China Morning Post
05-05-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
As Pyongyang marathon returns, North Korea's tourism remains frozen amid Russian pivot
When Simon Cockerell returned to the Pyongyang International Marathon last month after a five-year break, he felt a familiar energy – but the landscape had clearly shifted. Advertisement The general manager of Koryo Tours, the marathon's official travel partner, brought just 200 international visitors to North Korea , a stark drop from the 700 his company hosted in 2019. He attributed the smaller turnout to a combination of stricter access, limited travel options, and a reduced registration period. Unlike previous marathons announced nearly a year in advance, this year's race was confirmed only a month before the event on April 6, giving participants barely two weeks to register. Flights from Beijing were the only international entry point, and instead of the usual five to seven hotels, only one – managed by the athletics association in North Korea – was available. Visitors toured local landmarks and sampled North Korean beer, but under the official designation of a 'sports delegation', not tourists. Analysts say the highly restricted format – along with North Korea's general reluctance to reopen its borders to foreign visitors – reflects a deeper strategic shift. Amid tighter information controls and a growing military and economic partnership with Russia , Pyongyang appears to be turning its back on international tourism in favour of more politically aligned and financially dependable avenues of engagement. The costs of tourism have outweighed the benefits, and it seems North Korean decision-makers have come to realise that Dr Rüdiger Frank, analyst North Korea has remained largely closed to tourists since it sealed its borders in 2020 at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic . While Russian nationals have been allowed in since early 2024 , a brief reopening in February to non-Russian visitors in the northeastern city of Rason lasted just three weeks before the border was closed again without explanation.
South China Morning Post
15-04-2025
- South China Morning Post
American's ‘craziest experience' at North Korea marathon, completes record task
When American Cameron Mofid stepped out of the airport in Pyongyang he became one of the first tourists to visit North Korea in more than five years – and completed his mission to visit every country in the world. Advertisement Mofid was one of about 200 foreigners who travelled to the secretive state's capital last week for the Pyongyang International Marathon, which took place on April 6 and had not been held since 2019 because of the coronavirus pandemic. North Korea reopened to Russian tourists in January 2024 and allowed visitors from other countries to enter the eastern city of Rason in February 2025, but later cancelled those tours without giving a reason. This year, Koryo Tours, a Beijing-based agency listed as the marathon's 'exclusive travel partner', got foreigners into the capital – but as athletes, not tourists. 'I've been to every country in the world. And I can say that's the craziest experience I've had my entire life,' Mofid, who took part in the 10km event, said. 'It's hard to explain the feeling, but the adrenaline that you have going to the stadium with 50,000 people is like no other.' Advertisement The marathon was part of the country's birthday celebrations for its founding leader, Kim Il-sung, and allowed Mofid to visit his 195th country.
Washington Post
07-04-2025
- Sport
- Washington Post
North Korea hosts international marathon after 6-year pause
North Korea hosted its annual international marathon on Sunday for the first time in six years. Nearly 200 international amateur runners entered the marathon and associated races under an exemption allowing them to enter a country that has been closed to most international tourism since the coronavirus pandemic. It was the 31st edition of the International Pyongyang Marathon, which takes runners through the North Korean capital's streets and by key North Korean landmarks. Participants this year came from countries including China, Ethiopia, Morocco and Romania, state news media reported. In earlier editions of the race, only elite foreign runners from socialist and nonaligned states could enter the race; now, foreign amateurs are also invited, according to the race's official travel partner, Koryo Tours.
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
North Korea marathon resumes 6 years after COVID, but it's not for everyone
North Korea hosted the first Pyongyang International Marathon in six years on Sunday, welcoming international runners to the isolated autocratic nation that closed its borders to all outsiders in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. The 31st Pyongyang International Marathon drew more than 500 participants, including over 200 international runners, who came from nations including North Korea's neighbors and allies China and Russia. Open to both professionals and amateurs, the event featured a marathon and half-marathon, along with 10-kilometer and 5-kilometer races, according to information provided by the British travel agency Koryo Tours, which is based in China and organizes trips to North Korea for foreign travelers. The only way for foreign visitors to get into North Korea to take part in the race is to buy a roughly $2,500 ticket to join one of Koryo Tours' package trips to the so-called Hermit Kingdom. Those who took part in this year's race from abroad first had to get to Beijing for the flight to Pyongyang. The six-day tour package offered by Koryo was centered around the marathon. The race route started at Kim II Sung Stadium in the North Korean capital, where more than 50,000 people were gathered to cheer the runners on. According to the marathon's official website, the circular route took in "many of the iconic buildings, monuments and streets" of Pyongyang before "heading out into the countryside just outside of the urban center" and then looping back. A North Korean runner was the first to cross the finish line in the main event, according to the country's state-run television. Runners from the United States, South Korea and Malaysia were reportedly excluded from this year's event registration due to ongoing diplomatic tension between those countries and North Korea. The Russian Embassy in North Korea said in a social media post that five Russian nationals had participated in the event, with embassy staff and their families coming to cheer them on. The U.S. and many of its close allies have imposed a wide range of sanctions on North Korea — in addition to multilateral sanctions adopted by the United Nations Security Council — for its repeated weapons and nuclear tests. More recently, the U.S. has also sanctioned Pyongyang for its provision of troops and other support for Russia as it continues its three-year war on neighboring Ukraine. The U.S. State Department has for years warned Americans against traveling to North Korea, with its highest level of alert — a "Do not travel" advisory — in place "due to the continuing serious risk of arrest and … the critical threat of wrongful detention." Greenlanders respond to Trump: "It will never be for sale" "Warfare": Recreating an Iraq War firefight in real-time José Andrés on feeding the needy, and feeding the soul
