North Korea is set to reopen for foreign tourists after five years

Exclusive: Tour operator claims ‘visitors help to open eyes and open minds’ among North Koreans

Welcome back: Samjiyon, the first North Korean location expected open up to tourists in December (Koryo Tours)

The leading travel company taking tourists to North Korea says it hopes to send in the first Western tourists for almost five years by the end of 2024.

The nation was the first to close its borders to tourism at the start of the pandemic in January 2020 – and is the only country still to reopen. International passenger flights resumed in August 2023, but have not been open to tourists.

Simon Cockerell of Koryo Tours told The Independent’s daily travel podcast: “A few hours ago, we were informed by our partners [in Pyongyang] in the National Tourism Administration that one specific area is going to open to all nationalities in December.”

That area is Samjiyon, a newly developed tourism complex in the far north of the country, near the Chinese border – and close to Paektu, the tallest mountain in North Korea.

“It’s not a full reopening of the country back to what it was, or more than what it was,” said Mr Cockerell. “It’s a specific opening of one, relatively obscure-up-till-now area.

“It’s considered to be the home of various guerilla bases used during the resistance of the Japanese occupation, and the official birthplace of Kim Jong Il as well. So there’s a lot of what the North Koreans call revolutionary history in the area.”

He said access to Samjiyon would likely be through a land crossing in the north of China, which has not previously been used by any Western tourists. North Korea’s current leader, Kim Jong Un – son of Kim Jong Il – imposed the most severe border closure of any nation during Covid.

“It was a real, a proper lockdown beyond what most other people in the world have experienced,” said Mr Cockerell

“In the last year or so, they’ve slowly opened to some trade to some diplomats returning and to some Russian tourist groups who’ve been travelling in. But that’s that’s associated with the North Korean support for the Russian war effort.”

The Foreign Office warns against travel to North Korea, and tells British citizens: “You cannot get consular support within North Korea. “The security situation can change quickly with no advance warning about possible actions by the authorities. This poses significant risks to British visitors and residents.”

But Mr Cockerell said tourism “can only bring positives” and that visitors help to “open eyes and open minds, and these are things that should be promoted”.

He said: “The cure for isolation is not more isolation.”