Western tourists are set to re-enter North Korea for the first time in five years today, while Chinese travellers are poised to do the same next week.
North Korea was one of the first countries to shut its borders in response to COVID-19 in January 2020 and was the last to open them — despite a rumoured easing of restrictions in December which failed to materialise.
In the past year, the North Korean government has allowed some official business delegations and Russian tourists to enter the country, but its frontiers remained sealed to the rest of the world.
Representatives from two tour companies, which offer mainly Western tourists a glimpse into the secretive nation, were allowed into the north-eastern city of Rason last week in preparation for today’s border crossing.
What’s changed in five years?
Gergo Vaczi, a 37-year-old from Hungary, has been a guide with Koryo Tours since 2017 and returned from the trip to Rason on Monday.
He said a noticeable change since his last visit five years ago was a shift away from mentioning "unification" to instead recognising South Korea as a separate state.
In January last year, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un re-wrote the North's constitution to eliminate the idea of shared statehood between the war-divided countries.
"They have changed all the maps and all references to unification disappeared … before whenever there was a map of Korea they would show the whole Korean peninsular and now it has removed the South Korea part," Mr Vaczi said.
He also highlighted the ongoing impact of COVID-19, with measures like temperature checks and mask-wearing still prevalent.
"When you enter the country, the first thing they do is to measure your temperature and send your luggage through a disinfection machine," Mr Vaczi said.
"I would say that at least half of the population is wearing masks."
Mr Vaczi explained the border controls had improved.
"They were not searching my belongings at all this trip … they didn't check my photographs on exit, which is funny because that used to be the only place they checked my photos upon leaving the country before the pandemic," he said.
Itinerary has also changed
Australian Rowan Beard has run travel tours for Young Pioneer Tours in North Korea for more than a decade, and also returned from Rason this week.
The company is taking a group of 10 tourists across the border from China to Rason for a five-day trip beginning today.
Mr Beard said the itinerary had changed slightly from previous trips to the area five years ago but still focused on factories, industry and schools.
Off the agenda is the Rason casino, which shut down in the break, while visits to the only legal marketplace in North Korea have also been ditched for now.
Mr Beard explained there would be an adjustment period but "it was great to be back in North Korea".
"Westerners act a bit differently to the Russian tourists the locals have been seeing," he said.
"Westerners are super curious and they're going to take photos of things that Russians won't take photos of and they're going to ask questions that Russians don't usually ask.
"That's not a bad thing, I totally encourage that, but I know the [North] Koreans will have to get used to that again, and we will be there to help."
Chinese tourists soon to follow
Chinese tourists — who made up the bulk of foreign visitors to North Korea before the pandemic — have not returned to the country.
Beijing-based Zhixing Heyi travel agency said on Tuesday it had received "special approval" from its North Korean interlocutors to conduct a trip for Chinese nationals to Rason on February 24.
Participants would be "the first Chinese private tour group to visit North Korea in five years", the company said in an online statement.
Travellers would have the chance to visit a food processing factory, duck farm and deer ranch, and witness a taekwondo demonstration and a performance from local children, it said.
The travel agency's chairman Du Mingrui said he expected "only a few" foreign tour companies would be allowed to enter North Korea as the country slowly reopens.
"I think they'll open up everywhere eventually, but for now there certainly won't be many tour operators [going there]," Mr Du told AFP.
North Korean intermediaries currently appeared to be maintaining "closer contact" with Western travel agencies, he said.
Beijing's foreign ministry declined to comment on specific tours but said it "maintained a proactive attitude on communication and cooperation between China and North Korea in all fields".
North Korean officials did not respond to a request for comment.
Where is Rason?
The north-eastern city of Rason lies near the borders with China and Russia and became North Korea's first special economic zone in 1991.
With a separate visa regime, it has been a testing ground for new economic policies.
Tourism to the North was limited before the pandemic, with tour companies saying around 5,000 Western tourists visited each year.
Americans were banned from travelling to the North after the imprisonment and subsequent death of student Otto Warmbier in 2017.
