Possible North Korea tour pre-sales? Travelers urged to be cautious
In current days, information that worldwide passenger prepare companies between China and North Korea are resuming has been spreading quickly throughout the journey business.
The set off was an announcement from the official WeChat account of China Railway stating that, beginning March 12, 2026, worldwide passenger trains will function in each instructions between Beijing and Dandong in China, and Pyongyang in North Korea.
Xiangyu, a tour information at a journey company in Dandong, stated that a lot of the net pleasure could also be untimely.
“Proper now the entire web is spreading the information concerning the March 12 prepare reopening to North Korea,” he stated. “However the service is principally for enterprise vacationers and particular personnel. In different phrases, solely enterprise visas are at present accessible — vacationer visas for atypical vacationers haven’t been reopened in any respect.”
He added that many tour operators are already selling “first departure” tour packages.
“I’ve been working alongside the border for greater than a yr and have been watching the state of affairs intently. There was no official discover about reopening tourism to North Korea. Businesses asking individuals to pay now to ‘lock in a spot’ or promoting so-called inaugural tour teams are mainly charging individuals an ‘intelligence tax’ —playing with vacationers’ cash on a risk.”
In reality, rumors concerning the reopening of North Korean tourism will not be new. In August 2024, overseas media additionally reported that North Korea may resume tourism. On the time, the Chinese language journey business was getting ready eagerly, however Pyongyang by no means confirmed the stories and the dialogue step by step light away.
Based on official North Korean statistics, greater than 200,000 overseas vacationers visited the nation in 2018, a document excessive, with about 90% from China.
Now that the China–North Korea worldwide prepare service has resumed, journey information platform VariFlight reveals that on March 11, flight searches to Dandong elevated by about 50% in contrast with yesterday, whereas prepare ticket searches to town rose roughly 20%.
This means that even after six years of suspended worldwide tourism following the border closure, Chinese language vacationers’ curiosity in North Korea has not light.
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