Latest news with #OttoWarmbier
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
U.S. extends travel ban to North Korea for another year
SEOUL, May 15 (UPI) -- The United States extended its ban on travel to North Korea for the ninth year in a row, a federal notice showed, citing "imminent danger" posed by any trips to the authoritarian state. In a public notice posted on the Federal Register on Wednesday, the State Department announced the extension, which will be in effect from Sept. 1 until Aug. 31, 2026, unless extended or revoked by the secretary of State. The current measure was set to expire at the end of August. "The Department of State has determined there continues to be serious risk to U.S. citizens and nationals of arrest and long-term detention constituting imminent danger to their physical safety," the notice said. "Accordingly, all U.S. passports shall remain invalid for travel to, in or through the DPRK unless specially validated for such travel under the authority of the Secretary of State." The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea. The ban was initiated in September 2017 following the death of Otto Warmbier, a college student who was arrested in Pyongyang for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster in 2016. Warmbier was released in June 2017 in a vegetative state and died six days after returning home. A federal judge later found North Korea to be responsible for his torture and death. Tourism to North Korea has been almost nonexistent since Pyongyang sealed its borders at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in January 2020. In February of this year, a handful of Western travel agencies began offering small group tours to Rason, a special economic zone in the northeast of the country near the borders of China and Russia. However, North Korea abruptly halted the visits after less than three weeks. In an update posted on its website this month, Beijing-based Young Pioneer Tours said that discussions are ongoing between North Korea and China "regarding the best way to facilitate sustainable tourism to the DPRK via China, given the sensitive nature of Rason as a Special Economic Zone." The majority of tourists to North Korea have traditionally come from China. Before the COVID-19 border closure, an estimated 95,000 Chinese tourists visited North Korea annually, alongside just 5,000 Western tourists. In the wake of growing military and economic ties between Moscow and Pyongyang, Russian travelers were the first to return to North Korea post-COVID, when an Air Koryo passenger flight arrived from Vladivostok in February 2024. Pyongyang also hosted its first international marathon in six years in April, which included runners from China, Morocco and Ethiopia. Despite the paucity of international tourists, North Korea appears set to open a long-delayed massive beach resort next month. Launched in 2014, the sprawling Wonsan Kalma tourist zone along the country's east coast was initially slated to open in April 2019 but faced numerous setbacks including international sanctions on materials and the COVID-19 pandemic closures. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited the project site in December and declared it the "first big step" in advancing the country's tourist industry, according to state-run Korean Central News Agency. The article announced a launch date of June. The resort, which includes several hotels and thousands of rooms along 2.5 miles of coastline, is "very spectacular, beautiful and magnificent," Kim said. "Our country has tourist resources rich and diverse enough to arouse the envy of the world people, along with the political stability, institutional advantages and material and economic conditions essential for the development of tourist industry," he added.
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
North Korea halts foreign tourism weeks after reopening to Western visitors
HONG KONG — North Korea has once again closed its borders, suspending foreign tourism just weeks after the secretive state welcomed its first Western visitors in five years. North Korea sealed its borders in early 2020 at the start of the Covid pandemic, gradually lifting restrictions starting in mid-2023. The first tourists, a group from Russia, were allowed into the country in February 2024, but the first international visitors from other countries including Britain, Canada, France and Germany only arrived in North Korea for the first time last month. The visit by the Western group was limited to the remote northeastern city of Rason, which the North Korean government has designated a special economic zone. During the trip, they visited factories, shops and statues of late North Korean leaders. Unlike the Russians, they were not allowed to visit Pyongyang, the capital. Tour operators said Wednesday that travel to North Korea was no longer possible until further notice. It was unclear why North Korea had closed again to foreign visitors and how long the suspension would last. 'We have been informed that Rason is temporarily CLOSED,' Koryo Tours, a tour operator based in Beijing, said in a statement Wednesday. 'It's an unprecedented situation.' Other travel agencies that organize North Korea trips made similar announcements. 'We recommend that those planning tours in April and May refrain from booking flights until we have more information,' China-based Young Pioneer Tours said in a Facebook post, adding that refunds are available for tours that are canceled due to the abrupt change. Rason has operated differently from the rest of North Korea since it was declared a special economic zone in 1991. It has been used as a testing ground for new economic policies, the country's first mobile phone network and the first card payment system. Before the pandemic, North Korea had hosted hundreds of thousands of Chinese tourists who provided up to $175 million in extra revenue in 2019, according to the South Korea-based news outlet NK News. More recently, North Korea has been deepening ties with Russia, signing a mutual defense pact last year and sending weapons and troops to support President Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine. In 2024, almost 900 Russian tourists visited North Korea, the South Korean Unification Ministry said, citing official Russian data. The United States banned its citizens from traveling to the country in 2017 after the death of American student Otto Warmbier. Warmbier, 22, a University of Virginia student, stole a propaganda banner from a hotel during a visit to Pyongyang in January 2016 and was later sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for committing a hostile act against the government. He was returned to the United States in a coma the following year and died shortly afterward. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Foreign tour operators return to North Korea ahead of possible reopening
SEOUL, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Representatives from two Western travel agencies crossed into North Korea Thursday for the first time since the isolated regime closed its borders five years ago at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, raising hopes for new tourism offerings to a remote border city. Koryo Tours and Young Pioneer Tours, both based in Beijing, announced that they had crossed the Chinese border into the North Korean special economic zone of Rason to discuss logistics for upcoming tours. "After waiting over 5 years since the closure of the North Korean borders to tourism due to the COVID-19 pandemic back in January 2020, we're happy to finally enter North Korea," Koryo Tours wrote in a blog post on its website. "The country is not yet fully open to tourism and this is a special trip for staff only," the post said. "We will use our time in Rason to discuss with our partners as well as check out any new tourism sites and find out any key North Korea tourism updates." Young Pioneer Tours also announced its arrival in Rason, posting photos of the border crossing and an image of a passport stamp on its Facebook page. "This visit marks a great milestone, as we are the first non-Russian foreigners to set foot in the country since its borders were sealed five years ago due to the pandemic," the post said. Both travel agencies had previously announced in January that North Korea was reopening Rason to tourism and began offering tentative itineraries for group tours. However, trips scheduled to begin this month were postponed, with the companies now taking bookings for March. Rason, located in the northeast of the country near the borders of China and Russia, has rarely been visited by Western tourists. The area became the North's first special economic zone in 1991 and has been a testbed for various market-based activities in the otherwise strictly state-controlled economy -- it is home to North Korea's first mobile phone network, first legal marketplace and first card payment system, according to Koryo. Koryo's planned five-day itinerary includes visits to factories, foreign-language and Taekwondo schools, seaside recreation areas and a bank where visitors will be able to open a North Korean bank account. Young Pioneer's offering is similar. Roughly 5,000 Western tourists visited North Korea annually before the COVID-19 border closure, according to media reports. United States citizens have been barred by the State Department from traveling to North Korea since 2017 following the imprisonment and death of college student Otto Warmbier. Warmbier was detained in North Korea in 2016 for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster. He was released from prison in a vegetative state and died six days after returning home. A federal judge later found North Korea to be responsible for his torture and death.
