# North Korea Tourism Developments



## dhuwman (Oct 6, 2005)

Fawking scary hno:


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## NorthWesternGuy (Aug 25, 2005)

Nikkodemo said:


> Sounds very interesting!!
> 
> And very good of course!!
> 
> This is the first step...


Are you serious?


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## skydive (Apr 24, 2008)

it may be good for the economy and what not, but that also means the empty roads will become traffic jam logg and more polution


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## etienne (Apr 29, 2006)

people are soo curios about korea. i wana visit there somebody and hopefully exit the country without getting shot.
the mass games is mind boggling!


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*SKoreans withdraw from NKorea resort *
10 August 2008
Agence France Presse

South Korean personnel began withdrawing from North Korea's Mount Kumgang resort after the communist country asked them to leave, officials said Sunday.

The withdrawal followed a North Korean statement Saturday that "unnecessary" South Korean personnel would be expelled from the mountain resort just north of the border.

South Korea expressed regret saying the North's move would further escalate tensions over the July 11 fatal shooting of a housewife who strayed into a restricted military area at the resort.

The South said 11 personnel including two from the state-run Korea Tourism Organisation and nine in charge of a newly built facility for reunions of separated families in the resort had been asked to leave by early Monday.

"One left on Saturday and another two are supposed to leave today," a spokesman for the South's unification ministry in charge of cross-border relations, told AFP.

"More people will leave the resort by Thursday," he said.

The withdrawal will bring the number of South Koreans staying the area to about 120, the ministry said.

There have been no government officials staying in the area since the South suspended tourist trips to Kumgang in protest at the shooting.

The North blames the South for the incident and has rejected Seoul's call for a joint on-site probe.

The North's military said in its statement Saturday that the movement of South Koreans and their vehicles passing through the inter-Korean border in Kumgang would be strictly limited and controlled.

It accused South Korea of pushing inter-Korean relations to "a graver phase," referring to a joint statement issued last week by US President George W. Bush and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak after their summit in Seoul.

The two leaders expressed regret at the shooting and urged the North to engage in talks to resolve the case swiftly.

Tensions have been mounting since the shooting of housewife Park Wang-Ja, who was killed by one or more soldiers during a dawn stroll on a beach.

The North insisted she fled when challenged and did not stop despite warning shots.

The two countries have remained technically at war since their 1950-1953 conflict ended only in an armistice and not a peace treaty.

They held a series of rapprochement events including the opening of cross-border railways after a historic inter-Korean summit in 2000.

But inter-Korean relations have been at their lowest ebb since Lee came to power in February and suspended aid to the North.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*China to allow tour groups to visit North Korea *
2 September 2008
Associated Press Newswires

BEIJING (AP) - Chinese tour groups will be allowed to visit North Korea under a plan to designate the isolated communist state as an official travel destination, Beijing's National Tourism Agency said Wednesday.

The announcement follows South Korea's decision to suspend its decade-old tour program to the North's Diamond Mountain resort in response to the fatal shooting of a 53-year-old South Korean housewife by a North Korean army guard there in July.

Tours of the mountain resort, run by South Korea's Hyundai Asan company, had been an important source of hard currency for the cash-strapped North. About 1.9 million visitors, mostly South Koreans, have traveled to the resort since it opened in 1998.

North Korea presently sees few overseas visitors due to tight visa restrictions and a lack of tourism infrastructure. Numbers of potential Chinese visitors weren't known, and the agency's announcement said practical issues needed to be hammered out before visits could begin.

Chinese tourists have in past been allowed to make day trips across the Yalu river to the North Korean city of Sinuiju on the opposite bank.

Once North Korea becomes an official travel destination, then Chinese tour companies will be able to start arranging group travel, which is currently not allowed, and will also be able to promote North Korea as a tourist site.

While potentially making up for North Korea's loss of southern tourists, the Chinese plan also reflects traditionally close political and economic ties between the neighbors.

China allied with the North against South Korea and the United States in the 1950-1953 Korean War and continues to provide food and fuel assistance to its destitute neighbor while hosting multinational talks aimed at reducing tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear program.

According to the tourism plan, tentatively agreed to during a visit by the Chinese agency's deputy chief last month, North Korea will also be allowed to set up a tourism representative office in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang, about three hour's drive from the North Korean border.

China has added a growing number of countries to its list of approved destinations, offering them access to a lucrative source of inbound tourism as newly prosperous urban Chinese seek to expand their travel horizons.


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## Intoxication (Jul 24, 2005)

Who would wanna go North Korea??? Certainly, not me!


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## doubleno7 (Feb 19, 2008)

That is true... North Korea seems to have a HUGE stigma around it.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Hello, Pyongyang! China to sign pact allowing Chinese tour groups to visit North Korea *
3 September 2008

BEIJING (AP) - Chinese tour groups will be allowed to visit North Korea under a plan to designate the isolated communist state as an official travel destination, Beijing's National Tourism Agency said Wednesday.

The announcement follows South Korea's decision to suspend its decade-old tour program to the North's Diamond Mountain resort in response to the fatal shooting of a 53-year-old South Korean housewife by a North Korean army guard there in July.

Tours of the mountain resort, run by South Korea's Hyundai Asan company, had been an important source of hard currency for the cash-strapped North. About 1.9 million visitors, mostly South Koreans, have traveled to the resort since it opened in 1998.

North Korea presently sees few overseas visitors due to tight visa restrictions and a lack of tourism infrastructure. Numbers of potential Chinese visitors weren't known, and the agency's announcement said practical issues needed to be hammered out before visits could begin.

Chinese tourists have in past been allowed to make day trips across the Yalu river to the North Korean city of Sinuiju on the opposite bank.

Once North Korea becomes an official travel destination, then Chinese tour companies will be able to start arranging group travel, which is currently not allowed, and will also be able to promote North Korea as a tourist site.

While potentially making up for North Korea's loss of southern tourists, the Chinese plan also reflects traditionally close political and economic ties between the neighbors.

China allied with the North against South Korea and the United States in the 1950-1953 Korean War and continues to provide food and fuel assistance to its destitute neighbor while hosting multinational talks aimed at reducing tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear program.

According to the tourism plan, tentatively agreed to during a visit by the Chinese agency's deputy chief last month, North Korea will also be allowed to set up a tourism representative office in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang, about three hours' drive from the North Korean border.

China has added a growing number of countries to its list of approved destinations, offering them access to a lucrative source of inbound tourism as newly prosperous urban Chinese seek to expand their travel horizons.


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## staff (Oct 23, 2004)

[email protected] said:


> Why would anyone go to a country where you aren't allowed to go where you want, always have some government spies close to you, have to listen to propaganda all the time and can't take photos whenever you want?


I would love to go there.


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## MDguy (Dec 16, 2006)

^^ Me too! It would be such an interesting experience, it'd simply incredible to me


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*NKorean tour draws 100,000 despite cross-border chill *
15 October 2008
Agence France Presse

Almost 100,000 South Koreans have taken a day trip to a western North Korean city in the past 10 months despite the fatal shooting of a Seoul tourist at another destination in the communist state, the operator said Wednesday.

South Korea's Hyundai Asan, which runs all joint projects with the North, held a ceremony to mark the 100,000th visit to Kaesong just north of the heavily fortified border.

Kaesong is only the second destination opened to ordinary South Koreans and the only tour still operating.

Seoul suspended tours to scenic Mount Kumgang on the east coast after the North's soldiers in July shot a tourist who strayed into a restricted military area.

All but 2,600 of the Kaesong visitors were from South Korea, according to Hyundai Asan.

The city, capital of the Koryo Dynasty that ruled the Korean peninsula between 918 and 1392, is full of historic sites such as old Buddhist temples and has scenic waterfalls and other attractions.

On its outskirts, South Korean businesses run an industrial complex where some 32,000 North Koreans earn around 60 dollars a month producing light industrial goods.

Hyundai Asan pioneered cross-border tourism with visits, initially by ship, to Kumgang in 1998.

"It is clear that we are in difficulties," its president Cho Kun-Shik told Wednesday's ceremony.

"But I believe both the South and North will realise the importance of inter-Korean cooperation projects, including the Kumgang tour, by enduring the difficulties."

North Korea suspended most official contacts arter conservative President Lee Myung-Bak took office in Seoul in February. He has signalled a tougher line with his northern neighbour.

The two sides have remained technically still at war since the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended in an armistice.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*North Korea tour is trip back in time *
9 November 2008
Agence France Presse

This North Korean city is only 30 minutes by tourist bus from the heavily fortified border, but for South Korean day-trippers it is more like a journey back in time.

The Kaesong tour focuses on historic sites and beauty spots. But it also gives affluent Southerners a rare close-up view of the harsh realities of life in the impoverished communist North.

"Time seems to have stopped here," Lee In-Bin, 23, told AFP during a tour.

"After living apart for 60 years, the people of the South and the North, although the same Koreans, are too different. People here look so gloomy. There are few trees on the mountains and few cars on the streets."

Ordinary South Koreans got their first chance to visit the North a decade ago, when the Seoul-funded east coast resort of Mount Kumgang opened. Groups can visit the showpiece capital Pyongyang by invitation.

But Kaesong near the west coast is now the only destination open to average day-trippers. Seoul suspended tours to Kumgang this summer after North Korean soldiers shot dead a South Korean housewife who strayed into a restricted military zone.

And unlike Kumgang and Pyongyang, Kaesong's tourist spots are scattered in the downtown where ordinary people live.

Around 100,000 South Koreans have taken the tour to Kaesong, 70 kilometres (45 miles) north of Seoul, since it began in December 2007.

They see scenic waterfalls, historic Buddhist temples and other cultural relics in the city that was the capital of the Koryo Dynasty which ruled Korea between 918 and 1392.

They also see hillsides stripped bare of trees for firewood, streets almost empty of traffic and old brick buildings with faded or peeling paint. Some windows are covered with vinyl instead of glass.

Conspicuous amid the drabness are propaganda slogans and murals praising "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-Il and his family.

Uniformed and sometimes armed security personnel are posted at regular intervals, closely watching the convoy of tour buses.

The few pedestrians are mostly dressed in worn-out grey or navy blue Maoist-style outfits.

"It's like looking at South Korea back in the 1960s," said Yun Kum-Soon, 64, from the southwestern city of Gwangju.

Younger tourists said the streets resembled a movie from that era.

"The entire city looks like a film set," said Kim A-Hyeon, 23, lowering her voice because of North Korean guides on the bus.

"They (uniformed troops on the street) are like mannequins. Look at that! There goes an oxcart."

Capitalist South Korea is 18 times richer than the North in terms of gross national income. Children are almost 14 centimetres (5.6 inches) shorter in the North because of years of malnutrition, according to Seoul officials.

Yu Ki-Bang, 60, was four when he left his Kaesong home during the 1950-53 war.

"I have no actual memory of my home here because I was too young. But it's too bleak and desolate here," Yu said.

"I feel sad. I probably do not want to come back."

Authorities strove to prevent any interaction between locals and the South Koreans. Police vehicles escorted the tour bus convoy and three North Korean guides were posted in each bus.

During stops for sightseeing, shopping or eating, guides took extraordinary care that no tourists stray.

Visitors cannot bring printed material, personal computers, mobile phones, radios, MP3 players or memory devices.

They can take pictures with digital -- not film -- cameras only at designated spots and not from the buses.

At a border checkpoint North Korean police scrutinise every picture taken by every tourist and erase those they think are inappropriate.

Hyundai Asan, the South Korean firm which operates all joint ventures in the North, urges tourists not to discuss sensitive topics.

Just outside the city but not on the tour is the Seoul-funded Kaesong industrial estate, where some 32,000 North Koreans earn 60 dollars a month by working for South Korean labour-intensive factories.

The industrial estate and Mount Kumgang, both funded by Seoul to promote reconciliation, have earned the North tens of millions of dollars a year.

Despite this, the North recently threatened to evict South Koreans from the Kaesong estate in protest at cross-border leaflets spread by Seoul activists.

Tourist guide Ri Chun-Song said however he believes the industrial complex is a "win-win" business model for both Koreas.

"If the North and the South join hands, they will become a strong global power," said Ri, sporting a lapel pin of his country's founder Kim Il-Sung.


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## Manolo_B2 (Oct 26, 2007)

i thought this was a joke... :lol:


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*NKorea prepares 2009 mass games: tour agency *
17 February 2009
Agence France Presse

North Korea plans to host its Arirang festival -- the world's largest mass performance -- this year and schoolchildren have been practising daily since last month, a tour agency said Tuesday.

"It's expected to go ahead and the date is to be the same as usual basically," Simon Cockerell from Koryo Tours in Beijing told AFP.

The company said on its website the mass games will almost certainly be held from the beginning of August until the end of September and possibly into October, although dates have not yet been confirmed.

The festival features more than 100,000 performers in a 90-minute display of gymnastics, dance, acrobatics and dramatic performances, accompanied by music and other effects in a highly politicised package.

The communist country has held it intermittently since 2002.

North Korea every year attracts about 2,000 Western tourists of whom 1,200-1,400 come during the games period, Cockerell said.

The festival "is not just about money. It trains a very large number of people in teamwork ability and things like that," he said.

Cockerell rejected allegations by some rights groups that children are forced to practise hard for many days for the event.

"Children after school join gymnastics clubs or dance clubs and then they would be expected to be in the mass games, which for most people in Pyongyang is a great honour," he said.

"People want to do that. It's quite a prestigious thing to be in."

He said he doubts whether Arirang makes much money for the impoverished country given the expense of staging it.


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## OshHisham (Nov 14, 2005)

hehe...i wanna see 'Human Traffic Light'. interesting!! :lol:


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*SKorean firm to start tours along NKorea border *
27 April 2009
Agence France Presse

A South Korean tour operator said Monday it would launch a programme of trips to the world's last Cold War frontier after its tourism ventures inside communist North Korea were shut down.

Hyundai Asan said the programme beginning May 2 would include visits to the southern edge of the four-kilometre-wide (2.5-mile) buffer zone dividing the two Koreas.

The programme comes amid high tensions which have stalled the company's tourism programmes to the North's border city of Kaesong and to the Mount Kumgang resort across the frontier on the east coast.

The Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) has split the peninsula since the 1950-53 war. South Korean officials want to develop military-controlled areas abutting the zone as a tourist attraction.

Hyundai Asan said its new programme includes one-day tours costing 46,000 won (34 dollars) per person to border areas at Paju and Yeoncheon, north of Seoul.

Two-day tours to the border area at Yanggu, 175 kilometres northeast of Seoul, and to Mount Sorak on the east coast, will cost 118,000 won.

"Along with trips to front-line fences, tourists will be allowed to see wildlife and other places which remained untouched for decades," a Hyundai Asan official told AFP.

Visitors will not be allowed inside the DMZ itself.

Hyundai Asan said the new programme would help ease its financial woes, which began when a South Korean woman tourist was shot dead when she strayed into a military zone at Kumgang last July.

The Seoul government halted tours to Kumgang after the shooting, while Pyongyang barred the one-day tours to Kaesong city as relations worsened.

The company's other major joint project, the joint industrial complex near Kaesong city, is also facing problems due to sour cross-border ties.

The communist North has expelled hundreds of South Korean staff and restricted access to the Seoul-funded complex.

On March 30 it detained a Hyundai Asan employee for allegedly criticising the North's regime and trying to persuade a local woman worker to defect.

The two Koreas held brief talks last week but the North rebuffed the South's demands for access to the detainee.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

15:10, May 04, 2009
*China and North Korea to open rail tourist route in May*

Reporters learned from the Jilin Provincial Tourism Administration that China and North Korea have signed a cooperation agreement regarding a rail tourist route. The government of Tumen City in Jilin, North Hamgyong tourism bureau of North Korea, Tumenjiang International Travel Agency in Tumen, and the Chongjin Railway Bureau in North Hamgyong Province, North Korea recently signed cooperation agreements in Chongjin, North Korea regarding a rail tourism route. This marks China and North Korea as having officially agreed to launch a tourist route along railway lines.

The cooperation agreement, made between the government of Tumen City in Jilin and the North Hamgyong tourism bureau of North Korea, provides that the railway tourism route launched by China and North Korea will be jointly operated by two travel agencies, one from China and the other from North Korea. The North Korean side will set up an office to deal with the relevant problems arising from the route's operation. Both sides plan to hold an inauguration ceremony for the tourist route's trial operations in mid- or late May.

In addition, the contract, signed between the Tumenjiang International Travel Agency in Tumen and the Chongjin Railway Bureau in North Hamgyong Province of North Korea, further confirms relevant issues, such as China's property rights on the trains it provides, North Korea's right to use the trains, and North Koreas obligation to guarantee a standard amount of departures for the special tourist trains.

By People's Daily Online


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## Dallas star (Jul 6, 2006)

Who wants too see N Korea. I'm sure the tourists would be "watched" and wired the entire time.


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## ZimasterX (Aug 19, 2005)

^^

I do.


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## OshHisham (Nov 14, 2005)

Dallas star said:


> Who wants too see N Korea. I'm sure the tourists would be "watched" and wired the entire time.


it's good, don't you think? we watch them and they watch us. it's kinda 'bilateral relationship'! :lol:


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## Highjacker (Jun 17, 2006)

Why do those journalists remind everyone of the killed 53-year-old housewife in nearly every report? That's insulting to NK no matter what government is it ruled by. Anyway, I'm quite happy about the lift of certain travel restrictions, at least that will bring in some much-needed hard currency.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

I think being watched and treated like royalty can make interesting tourism.


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## snapdragon (Apr 27, 2009)

The thing that really surprises me most about north korea is their perfomance in international maths olympiad those guys are always in top 10 many times ahead of south korea .Last time they were 7th i think .

Also i think in the best of my knowledge it happens to be the worlds most literate country

North korea borders liaoling province which has huge coal reserves and so does north korea .

Anyway death to kim jong would do some good


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*TRAFFIC ACROSS INTER-KOREAN BORDER PROCEEDS AS USUAL *

SEOUL, May 27 Asia Pulse - Inter-Korean traffic across the sea and land borders continued as usual, a Seoul spokesman said Wednesday, in the wake of the North's nuclear test that has sharply raised regional tension.

More than 400 South Korean workers crossed the military demarcation line in the morning to visit a joint industrial complex in the North's border town of Kaesong, said Chun Hae-sung of the Unification Ministry. About 400 people were expected to return in the afternoon, he said.

Ships sailed near the other side of the border according to an inter-Korean maritime accord. Five North Korean commercial boats were passing through South Korean waters, while dozens of South Korean ships were currently in North Korean territory, the official said.

The maritime accord was reached amid brisk inter-Korean relations in 2004 and ratified the following year to allow commercial vessels to save time and fuel.

Commercial traffic continued, but humanitarian and other visits were now suspended. Following the North's second nuclear test on Monday, South Korea imposed a temporary ban on border trips by its citizens, mostly humanitarian aid workers and social activists. Only those who work at the Kaesong park and the Mount Kumgang resort, where scores of Hyundai Asan Corp. workers stay to maintain suspended tourism facilities, can travel to the North.

South Korea also joined a U.S.-led security campaign, the Proliferation Security Initiative, in response to the nuclear test. North Korea has warned it will be a "declaration of war" if Seoul joins the anti-proliferation drive to seize ships and planes suspected of carrying weapons or mass destruction. Its primary targets are believed to include North Korea.


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## schmidt (Dec 5, 2002)

Does anyone know how one can get from South America to North Korea? Does it have to be via China? Do the tours have fixed dates?


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

schmidt said:


> Does anyone know how one can get from South America to North Korea? Does it have to be via China? Do the tours have fixed dates?


Tours usually go through China. Either train down or fly from Beijing with the North Korean flag carrier.


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## [email protected] (Jan 17, 2004)

/\

All people I know who have been to North Korea, entered the country from South Korea (usually by bus).


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

^ That's for Kaesong or that mountain resort, right?


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## [email protected] (Jan 17, 2004)

No, they were heading to Pyongyang.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Seoul raps N.Korean decision to scrap tourism deal*
Thu Apr 8, 11:38 pm ET

SEOUL (AFP) – South Korea urged North Korea Friday to reverse its decision to scrap a cross-border tourism agreement, saying the communist state is breaching business contracts and international norms.

The North announced late Thursday its deal with South Korean company Hyundai Asan is no longer valid, and it would let an unidentified new partner take over the tours to Mount Kumgang on its east coast.

It said it would "freeze" some property owned by Seoul at the scenic resort and expel some South Korean personnel.

The announcement further strains inter-Korean relations, which are already tense following an unexplained explosion which sank a South Korean warship near the disputed border on March 26.

The sanctions-hit North has been pressing the Seoul government in vain to lift its ban on the tours, which once earned the impoverished state tens of millions of dollars a year.

Seoul suspended the tours in July 2008 after North Korean soldiers shot dead a South Korean housewife who strayed into a military zone.

"The government expresses deep regret at the North's statement," said unification ministry spokesman Chun Hae-Sung.

"Such a unilateral measure, which violates not only the contracts among business operators and between North and South Korean authorities but also international norms and practices, must be immediately withdrawn."

The North also threatened to reexamine its joint industrial park with South Korea at Kaesong just north of the border unless relations improve with the Seoul government, which it described as "hell-bent on confrontation".

Both projects were developed by Hyundai Asan as symbols of reconciliation.

The company called for calm.

"We urge authorities of both sides to engage in sincere talks and to move forward to resuming the tours at the earliest possible date," it said in a statement.

Some 42,000 North Koreans work at 110 South Korean-funded plants at Kaesong, which like Kumgang is a valuable source of scarce hard currency for the North.

South Korea demands firm agreements on the safety of visitors, a joint investigation into the shooting and the North's apology for the killing.

The North says it has already given safety guarantees.

Professor Yang Moo-Jin of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies said the North might also confiscate assets owned by Hyundai Asan and close down Kaesong.

"If the South maintains its policy of keeping inter-Korean relations subservient to the North's nuclear issue, ties will continue worsening and lapse back to Cold War-era confrontation," Yang told AFP.

Dongguk University professor Kim Yong-Hyun also said relations would be strained further.

"If the North is found to have been involved in the sinking of the South Korean ship, tension will escalate with cross-border exchanges cut off completely."

Seoul has not so far accused Pyongyang of involvement in the March 26 sinking pending an investigation.

The Kumgang tours began in 1998. Nearly two million South Koreans travelled there over the next decade and the business earned the North some 487 million dollars.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*North Korean Tourism: On Board the First Cruise Ship to Sail the Closed Shores*
By Marianne Barriaux / Die Welt
08.09.2011
http://www.welt.de/reise/article13592477/Alter-Frachter-ist-Nordkoreas-erstes-Kreuzfahrtschiff.html

Aboard the Man Gyong Bong, fresh coffee was served, along with dried fish and local beer. Karaoke parties pepped the night life.

That said, turn on a faucet and there was usually no water — and cabins were more like dormitories. Welcome to North Korea's first cruise ship. 

If all goes according to the plans of North Korean authorities, the 21-hour cruise on the converted freighter from the down-at-the-heels port city of Rajin to the northeastern part of North Korea, which is known for its scenic Mount Kumgang, will boost tourism and provide this isolated country with an immediate injection of much needed foreign currency.

To promote the project, North Korea's usually publicity-shy regime invited foreign journalists and Chinese tour operators on a beta-test tour.

For the cruise, authorities spruced up a nearly 40-year-old freighter, which, until 1992, ferried between North Korea and Japan. "The conversion work on the ship was only completed a week ago," said Hwang Chol Nam, deputy mayor of the Rason special economic zone.

The cruise idea was hatched by Taepung, a North Korean investment group, and the regional government of Rason. In 1991, the whole area on the northeast coast of North Korea that borders Russia and China, including the cities of Rajin and Sonbong, was declared a free-trade zone in order to stimulate investment. However, because of poor infrastructure, frequent power outages and a lack of confidence induced by a Stalinist-era management style, foreign investors stayed away and the zone never took off.

Now, the authorities are trying anew to infuse life into the project. North Korea's economy is suffering bitterly because of international sanctions imposed on the totalitarian state over its nuclear-weapons program. 

After decades of isolation and bad economic policies, the country is desperately poor and its population has to cope with constant food shortages.

According to Hwang, the way forward in the zone is a mix of tourism and seafood processing.

Gradually, North Korea is opening to Western visitors. Presently, only the Mount Kumgang area has been developed for tourism — although there is a considerable political conflict in the region after a North Korean soldier shot a vacationing South Korean in 2008.

On our tour at the end of August, when the Man Gyong Bong left Rajin, hundreds of students and workers with flowers saw off the ship.

Any contacts with local people took place only with guides, owners of tourism companies or hotel employees. Out the window of the excursion bus, North Koreans could be spotted, in monotone clothes, cycling by or driving one of the rare cars on otherwise empty roads.

Portraits of Kim Jong Il and his deceased father Kim Il Sung adorned the vast lobby of the hotel in Rajin. The rooms were spartan but clean. Internet connections were not available, and connection by telephone was unreliable and expensive.

Passengers who decided to go onshore had to hand over their cell phones to cruise managers. According to Hwang, telecommunication in the free-trade zone will improve shortly and Internet access — albeit only to websites relating to the local economy — should be available later this month.

For Simon Cockerell, managing director of Beijing-based Koryo Tours, a company that specializes in North Korea travel, the attractiveness of the tour lies in the fact that the destination is utterly obscure. "Lots of people love to travel to unknown places," he says. "And this is the least visited part of the least visited country on the planet."


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## Linguine (Aug 10, 2009)

Interesting thread.....nice read of a very reclusive country.


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## elsalvador (Feb 20, 2010)

I would like to visit North Korea!!!!




*Aprender coreano gratis*


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## asif iqbal (Sep 3, 2006)

I am sure north korean people are very nice and friendly and probably just want everything everyone else in the world wants 

but because of this evil sadistic backward regime they are suffering, i think its job of all people of free world to help north korean people open to outside world, this 2011 and theres no space for such leaders to be in power

does the leader go gambling in Macau or something while the people go hungry, sick to the stomach with that thought


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

March 26, 2018
*U.S. travel ban hits foreign attendance figures for North Korea marathon*
_Excerpt_

SEOUL (Reuters) - Described as North Korea’s “biggest hit of the year,” next month’s Pyongyang Marathon is expected to have half as many foreign participants as last year, tour operators say, as political tensions and a ban on U.S. visitors take their toll.

International tourism to North Korea dropped last year as tension increased over the county’s testing and development of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

In July last year, the United States banned its citizens from visiting North Korea after the death of Otto Warmbier, an American university student who died after being released from 17 months of detention in North Korean.

“Tourism came close to collapse, there were far fewer tourists,” said Simon Cockerell, general manager of Koryo Tours, noting that the market was small and easily susceptible to swings.

Tourism numbers have slowly risen amid an easing in those tensions over the past few months - driven by a revival of inter-Korean talks and a push for a summit between Pyongyang and Washington - but that hasn’t translated to a major turnout for the year’s biggest tourism event, operators said.

“Our tourist numbers for our scheduled group tours to North Korea have steadily grown. However, the amount of attendees to this year’s Pyongyang marathon event are down considerately,” said Rowan Beard, a manager with Young Pioneer Tours, who noted one of the biggest reasons for the drop is a lack of Americans.

“The majority of the runners who had joined us previously were Americans,” he said, describing the marathon as “the biggest hit” of last year. “They were really keen to come to Pyongyang, compete against the locals and check out the country they constantly saw in the news back home.”

Last year saw an unusually large number of foreign runners, with around 1,000 participating, while this year around 500 are expected, Cockerell said.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...igures-for-north-korea-marathon-idUSKBN1H20ZW


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Hopes of North Korea economic reform spur surge in Chinese tourism*
_Excerpt_

DANDONG, China, Aug 3 (Reuters) - North Korea’s proclaimed shift in national focus to economic development from nuclear arms is prompting cautious optimism across the Chinese border in Dandong, a trading hub hit hard by United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang.

Travel agents in the Chinese city say they have seen a surge of interest from across the country in recent weeks, boosting an already strong peak tourism season.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s economic reform plans and warming ties between Pyongyang and its main backers in Beijing were behind the jump in activity, agents said.

“People who may have long been curious about seeing North Korea may think that now it is safer than ever,” said tour guide Teng Yi, who returned from leading a tour to Pyongyang on Sunday.

After meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on June 19, their third such summit since March, Kim spent the subsequent month inspecting factories and industrial projects along the Chinese border region.

The unusually long trip, plus meetings with U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and South Korea’s unification minister, underlined Kim’s desire to rally support at home for his economic drive and convincing outsiders of his willingness to denuclearize.

A dip in visitors after a tour bus crash killed 32 Chinese nationals in April proved a mere blip. Half-day and one-day tours to the neighboring North Korean city of Sinuiju now book out within an hour of tickets being released, travel agents in Dandong say.

Four-day tours, which take in the capital Pyongyang and the Panmunjom truce village are fully booked through to the end of August, despite increased capacity through more frequent trains and coaches.

Tourism is one of the few remaining reliable sources of foreign income for North Korea, after the U.N. imposed sanctions targeting 90 percent of its $3 billion annual exports including commodities, textiles and seafood.

China has not provided a breakdown of the number of tourists traveling to North Korea since 2013.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...m-spur-surge-in-chinese-tourism-idUSKBN1KN314


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

* North Korea to launch medical tourism, targeting visitors from China *
Dec 6, 2019
_Excerpt_

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea, one of the world’s most reclusive states, plans to branch out into medical tourism next year, offering foreign visitors, most likely from China, treatments including cataract surgery, dental implants and therapy for tumors.

The ruling party’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported on Friday the recent launch of the “Treatment Tourism Exchange Corporation”, aimed at capitalizing on the “rising demand for tourism, including medical care, in line with an international trend”.

The new state entity will operate health clinics near hot springs, whose mineral waters, it said, can help treat neuralgia, arthritis, and heart and skin ailments.

Private tourism is one of the few remaining areas of business not blocked by sanctions imposed on North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs.

As many as 350,000 Chinese tourists have visited North Korea this year, potentially netting the authorities up to $175 million, according to some analysts.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...m-targeting-visitors-from-china-idUSKBN1YA0WA


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