After Five Years, Chinese Travel Agencies Eye a Return to North Korea
Otto Weng’s first encounter with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea came through a telescope on the banks of the Yalu River. Gray hills. Empty roads. A place just out of reach.
Last week, he became one of the first non-Russian tourists to cross the border in five years — and found a country eager to put its best foot forward. Students at a lavishly decorated school performed a skit titled “We Are Happy”; factories bustled with activity; and children danced in space-aged costumes.
For Weng, a 24-year-old lifestyle vlogger with 500,000 followers on video platform Bilibili, the four-day trip was an exciting, if occasionally nerve-wracking, success. He returned with 700 gigabytes of footage from one of the world’s most isolated nations.
But for the handful of agencies that specialize in tourism to North Korea, the picture was cloudier. On March 5, just 14 days after reopening and three days into Weng’s trip, North Korea once again suspended entry for tourists.
No official reason was given for the halt, and it is unclear when tours will be able to resume. While some operators are still accepting bookings ahead of major international events like the Pyongyang Marathon April 6, for now, insiders say, the only thing to do is wait and watch.
Hot and cold
Prior to 2020, China was by far the largest source of foreign tourism to North Korea. Of the 200,000 foreign tourists to visit the country in 2018, 90% were Chinese, according to official statistics.
That flow of people came grinding to a halt early in the pandemic, however, as North Korea closed its borders to keep the virus out. Four years would pass before tourists were allowed back.
A Russian group became the first post-COVID tourists to enter North Korea last February, but China-based and international agencies remained on ice.
That finally changed last month. On Feb. 20, the Koryo Group, a Beijing-based British travel agency with a long history of running tours in North Korea, sent its first group across the border in five years.
Weng says he signed up for a Koryo tour as soon as he heard the news. The four-day trip, which entered North Korea March 3, cost about 10,000 yuan ($1,350), including a single room upgrade. That’s roughly double what a similar tour cost prior to the pandemic.
Still, he doesn’t regret the decision. “My job involves content creation,” he said. “If I can capture first-hand experiences of this secretive land and share insights for my Chinese audience, I think it’s worth going, even at the relatively high cost.”
“We toured three schools, including the top one in Rason,” Weng said, referring to a special economic zone along the border with China. “The students spoke excellent English, with many of them speaking four or five languages including Chinese and Russian.”
Other destinations included a state-run farm, a monument to national founder Kim Il Sung, and several factories.
The glimpses of the country Weng found most exciting weren’t physical, but digital. Over 50-yuan cappuccinos with their North Korean photographer, Weng caught glimpses of the country’s tech ecosystem: smartphones, emojis, and a Taobao-like e-commerce app that seemed to offer mostly digital goods.
Absent from the itinerary was Pyongyang. Although Russians have been allowed to visit the capital, Koryo groups were limited to Rason.
Even there, independent exploring was not allowed, Weng said. But he was given the go-ahead to film for his channel: “I was told as long as I stuck to designated locations, filming wouldn’t be a problem.”
Simon Cockerell, the general manager of Koryo Group, said there were notable differences in the itinerary compared to the pre-pandemic period, even within Rason.
“Some activities we used to include are no longer possible,” Cockerell told Sixth Tone. “Two of the main highlights of visiting Rason before were the Rajin City Port and the local market. Neither is accessible now.”
While these absences might not stand out to first-time travelers like Weng, there was one change he did notice. “At first I thought we’d be flying there,” Weng said. “I was actually quite excited about experiencing Air Koryo, a unique airline still operating Soviet-era planes. But the air route hasn’t been revived yet.”
A waiting game
The question facing China’s North Korea-focused travel agencies now is when — or if — those links will reopen.
Although Weng’s group wasn’t affected by the sudden border closure, which came halfway through their trip, no tours have been allowed into North Korea since March 5.
North Korea’s shifting policies aren’t the only hurdles to overcome, however. While China-based travel agencies remain eager to reenter the market, insiders say they must first gain approval from China’s tourism authorities.
On Feb. 18, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said China had a “positive attitude” toward exchanges and cooperation between China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
None of the China-market agencies contacted by Sixth Tone sent tour groups in February or early March. Multiple industry insiders said they continue to wait on government approval, though they remain confident that tourism to North Korea will resume in the coming weeks.
The Beijing-based Zhixing Heyi travel agency was the first domestic company to accept travel applications to North Korea, starting in mid-February. The agency, which has arranged travel packages centered around the Pyongyang Marathon since 2015, continues to advertise for this year’s event, scheduled for April 6.
Koryo, which is not subject to the same rules as agencies aimed at Chinese tourists, is also taking bookings for similar trips, Cockerell said.
An employee of the Xinze travel agency in the northern Chinese city of Qinhuangdao, surnamed Wang, told Sixth Tone that Xinze train tours to major cities, including Pyongyang, had been confirmed by their partner in North Korea and remain open for booking.
The trips — which can cost up to 6,580 yuan for 10 days on the luxury “Kim Il Sung Special Train” — are currently slated to launch April 3. Some departure dates have already sold out, said Wang, who declined to give his full name due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Still, the company is proceeding cautiously. “Right now, our North Korea tour packages can’t be listed on major online travel platforms,” Wang said. “We can only sell them directly through personal networks.”
(Header image: A view of a middle school in Rason, North Korea, March 2025. Courtesy of Zoe Stephens, Koryo Group tour guide)
