Why does North Korea want to reopen its borders to Western tourists at the end of the year?

After four years of closure, North Korea is expected to reopen its borders to Western tourists in December. A slow process for one of the most closed countries in the world.

Cut off from the world since 2020, North Korea is gradually reopening to foreign tourists. From December 2024, Westerners will be able to visit again, according to several Chinese tour operators. They will join the few delegations of Russian and Chinese tourists already authorized to visit North Korea since February 2024. Franceinfo takes stock of this situation with Pierre-Olivier François, journalist-documentary director and specialist in Korea.

Almost total closure to foreigners since Covid

The Kims’ country had closed its borders at the beginning of 2020 due to the Covid-19 crisis. “They have been very restrictive in making almost all foreigners leave North Korean territory. The official version of the country is that it wanted to protect its population from any risk of Covidexplains Pierre-Olivier François, a specialist in Korea. North Korea had already been very restrictive at the time of SARS, because part of the population is malnourished and would possibly be more easily affected by a virus such as Covid. The closure was such that North Koreans stranded abroad were not able to return for three years.”

A return limited to a single city for the moment

The return of Western tourists is expected to initially focus on the city of Samjiyon in the northeast of the country. This new city, built near the Sino-Korean border and at the foot of Mount Paektu, is symbolic in the North Korean mind. “This is where the mythical first Korean is said to have been born and it is also a place where one of the combat headquarters of Kim Il-Sung, the founder of North Korea, is located in the war against the Japanese occupiers between 1940 and 1943”says Pierre-Olivier François.

The city, designed as a “mountain city model”, has a ski resort, hotels, commercial and cultural facilities that are of primary interest to Chinese tourists. “North Korea is not only focused on the West, explains Pierre-Olivier François. This city is first and foremost for its population. And if it can be used to develop tourism towards the Chinese, who are the most numerous and right next door, or towards Westerners, so much the better, it brings in foreign currency.”

A potential reopening of Pyongyang in the coming months

Before 2020, North Korea welcomed some 5,000 Western tourists each year, 20% of whom were Americans. But since 2017 and the death of an American student, Otto Warmbier, Washington has banned all travel to the country by its nationals. South Korea also prohibits its citizens from traveling to its northern neighbor. After almost five years of closure, Western tourists, excluding Americans and South Koreans, will once again be able to visit this destination, sometimes referred to as “dark tourism”.

After the opening of Samjiyon in December, the rest of the country, including the capital Pyongyang, should also welcome delegations of Western tourists in the following months. The metropolis of more than 3 million inhabitants concentrates the places of power and the main monuments of the country. A sensitive place that required groups or individual tourists to be accompanied by at least two North Korean guides before 2019.