First Foreigners Return to North Korea
It’s been over four years since North Korea (DPRK) closed her borders due to the onset of the COVID pandemic at the end of January 2020. Since then, only select groups, primarily Russians and other politically-aligned parties, have been allowed to visit the country.
But recently a window to North Korea has begun to crack open. Korean Japanese college students from the Korea University in Tokyo became the first Korean expats to return to the DPRK after the pandemic. These final year students arrived on August 28th to complete their college education, opening the door for other Korean expats from Japan and possibly other countries to re-engage.
Western re-engagement in North Korea has continued to be slow. The Swedish ambassador became the first Western diplomat to return to his post in the DPRK on September 16, 2024. In the same month, foreign professors returned to Pyongyang to teach at a science and technology university. Over a dozen administrators and professors resumed their teaching positions, while even more professors received visas. These foreign professors will continue to visit Pyongyang at different times throughout the semester according to their teaching schedule.
View of Pyongyang
Koryo Tours, a British-owned travel agency specializing in tourism to the DPRK, is also planning on resuming trips in November or December of this year. Throughout the COVID pandemic until now, these tours have been cancelled or postponed. But the fact that Koyro tours is registering tourists for one tour in November and two tours in December is a good sign.
Unfortunately, humanitarian organizations are still waiting to re-engage in the nation. This includes large UN entities such as the World Food Program (WFP), UNICEF, and the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as smaller private non-profit organizations. Border closings during the COVID pandemic hurt the country’s supplies and economy, but humanitarian organizations were not immediately allowed back into the country. Despite these restrictions, some organizations have been continuing to provide humanitarian support from outside the nation, including UNICEF vaccination programs for approximately 800,000 North Korean children.
What is clear is that North Korea is slowly re-opening its borders in a very selective and deliberate way. It is unclear if or when the larger international community will be able to re-enter North Korea. Even the Free Economic Zone of Rason has yet to reopen.
The Rason Free Economic Zone was established in the 1990’s to promote foreign investment and business ventures. Located in the far northeast corner of the country along the border of both China and Russia, the zone includes the cities of Rajin and Sonbong. Thousands of Chinese businessmen have engaged in North Korea through this economic zone over the past several decades, improving both the local economy and infrastructure. Only until global sanctions were imposed upon North Korea in 2017 did Chinese business engagement decline. However, the Rason border between China and North Korea has yet to reopen, even though Russian tourists have already started to revisit the region.
Location of the Rason Free Economic Zone
What does all this mean for foreign engagement with North Korea? Simply put North Korea is not in a hurry to reopen its borders. In light of recent legal changes and deliberate blocking of all products and information from South Korea, the country is making calculated decisions regarding its reopening. Priority is given to countries with political affinities, such as Russia, whereas people from other countries are being kept at a distance. Certain Korean expats are slowly being allowed to revisit, but only in a pre-determined manner. Western engagement may be slow with only the Swedish ambassador currently residing in Pyongyang and other ambassadors from Germany, the United Kingdom (UK), Poland, and Switzerland yet to return. Indeed, it may be 2025 before borders fully reopen and foreigners at large are allowed to return to visiting the DPRK.