North American tourists have entered North Korea for the first time in five years

A group of tourists went on a five-day tour inside the country.

Feb 26, 2025 - 20:38

North American tourists have entered North Korea for the first time in five years

Widely considered to be the most closed-off country in the world, North Korea has kept its borders shut to almost all international arrivals since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020.

While the Kim family's authoritarian control of the nation separated from democratic South Korea in 1948 has consistently made North Korea a difficult and risky destination, select tour operators had previously taken groups of Western tourists on short trips from China.

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North Korea is allowing tourists to visit the country for the first time in years.
LMspencer / Shutterstock

North Korea welcomes private tour groups

Last summer, the first reports that operators like the Beijing-based Koryo Tours were preparing to resume in 2025 started to emerge. This week, the first group of 13 tourists from countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, UK, France, New Zealand, Australia, Germany and Greece have completed a tour northeastern city of Rason for a five-day visit.

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Koryo Tours General Manager Simon Cockerell said that the tourists crossed into North Korea by land on Feb. 20 and went back after a five-day visit on Feb. 24. During the trip, they toured local factories, shops, schools and statues of past North Korean leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il.

"Since January of 2020, the country has been closed to all international tourists, and we are glad to have finally found an opening in the Rason area, in the far north of North Korea," Cockerell told the Associated Press. "Our first tour has been and gone, and now more tourists on both group and private visits are going in, arranging trips."

A port near the Sea of Japan, Rason has been designated as a "special city" into which the North Korean government has slowly begun allowing international visitors in an effort to boost its economy. A group of tourists from Russia were brought in for a ski trip earlier this year.

Countries that do or don't allow travel into North Korea

South Korea's Unification Ministry said that approximately 880 Russian tourists have visited North Korea in 2024. As with the Western group, the majority have been to the border area and were not taken further into the country or the capital city of Pyongyang.

Notably absent from the group of Western tourists were any from the United States. Americans have not been allowed to use a U.S. passport to enter the country since 22-year-old Ohio student Otto Warmbier died after months spent in a vegetative state following his arrest in 2016.

While other Western nations such as Canada and the United Kingdom do not keep up diplomatic relations and assign North Korea the highest "do not travel" rating, their citizens are not outright banned from visiting. Doing so, however, is always done at the travelers' personal risk as these countries specify that their ability to provide assistance in the case of any problems that arise is "extremely limited."

Last year, then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken extended the ban yet again over "serious risk to U.S. citizens and nationals of arrest and long-term detention constituting imminent danger to their physical safety."