Noord -Korea has put a sudden 'break' on the Western tourist drive, just a few weeks after visitors have entered the country for the first time in years.
Travel groups that offer British adventures in the Hermit Kingdom report that travel to the port city of Rason were placed after the country reopened its doors for foreign visitors last month.
Young Pioneer Tours, a group that 'specializes in taking to places where your mother would rather stay away', advised holidaymakers to refrain from booking flights 'until we have more information' on Wednesday.
“We are advised by our partners in the DVK that tours to Rason are currently being paused,” they wrote in a message on Facebook. “We are clarifying how this will influence your upcoming journeys.”
Northern Korea had tried to welcome foreign guests with new attractions in recent weeks, after he had closed himself at the start of the COVID-19 Pandemie. Restrictions were relaxed in 2023, before Russian visitors were invited to visit last year.
The country is also about to reveal its Costa Blanca-inspired holiday resort in Wonsan Kalma, on the west coast, promises to create a 'coastal wonder' for tourists and to open as quickly as possible.
The decision to 'pause' visits to the country comes as a shock, in which travel agencies report that their Korean partners 'have no more information at this stage'.
The public operators told the BBC that stumbling to the experimental special economic zone of Rason were 'more limited' since reopening, with fewer opportunities to make contact with the local population and internet access not available.
Young Pioneer Tours organizes tours for foreign visitors to explore Noord -Korea
Visitors were shown a 'controversial' performance in the children's palace where children sing and dance for an exploding rocket display
A group of 13 Western tourists started for the first time since the Hermit Kingdom after the nation had sealed its limits at the start of the COVID19 Pandemie in the early 2020
A group of tourists who visit a bank during a recent tour through the country
British on recent tours said they were shocked about some of the differences in culture she experienced in North Korea.
Ben Weston, a tour leader from Suffolk, told the BBC that the last trip 'liked to be on a school trip', and that they could not leave their hotel without a guide.
Mike O'Kennedy, a YouTuber, said: “A few times I even had to let them know when I wanted to use the bathroom.”
But Tour groups today showed that their newest guests could still conclude a successful visit to Rason, despite the sudden reversal.
Justin Martell, marketing director at Young Pioneers Tour Group, told MailOnline that a group traveled home yesterday from North Korea.
The group shared photos of the Russian Friendship Pavilion, near the Russian border, and during a Taekwondo demonstration.
“We also stopped at a local bookstore, where we had the opportunity to browse and pick up some anti-imperialist propaganda and to offer a fascinating look in the ideological landscape of the region,” read a message on their public Facebook page.
Mr. Martell told MailOnline that a number of factors had led the company to believe that health problems could be the reason for the abrupt stopping of traveling.
'The DVK tends to close the boundaries due to epidemics, even if they are not close. They recently closed the border for six months because of an Ebola outbreak in Africa, and Westerners kept five years out because of COVID-19, “he said.
'During the tours we saw posters focused on the population warning against the spread of Covid and Monkeypox [mpox] And how you can protect against this.
“The Ministry of Health also published an article on 4 March about whom the concern about Monkeypox, so that they clearly take it seriously.”
Tour -Gasten experienced a taekwondo demonstration during a recent visit to the country
'When our group left yesterday, everyone wore masks and they all had temperature controls. On arrival that seemed not to be mandatory.
“It all seems to do with health problems instead of negative recoil against Western tourism.”
He added that the tours had become 'really good'.
“Our customers were very happy. The Koreans were a bit rusty – or were afraid they would be rusty – because they had not had Western visitors in years.
“But they were great and everything went well.”
He said that visitors did not need vaccinations, although noted that Chinese and Russian business people who visit Rason – the most important business district in the country – seemed to present health certificates on the border.
On background checks he said that the DVK authorities asked for 'everyone's full name and occupation' for the permit process, and said that this was not wrong with visa applications in other countries.
'How much they look at the backgrounds of people that I cannot say or confirm, but we took vloggers and content makers and they seemed to have no problem with them.
School children play in the water in Songdowon International Children's Camp in Wonsan City, Noord -Korea
The North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is wearing a face mask on the state of television during a meeting in which the first case of COVID-19 is recognized on Thursday 12 May 2022
Koryo Tours, who has brought at least 13 Western visitors to the country since the end of February, also reported on March 5 that Rason was 'temporarily closed'.
The operators said in a blog post that they 'had no further information about this now', but said they 'were in contact with both our groups there and our Korean partners, but they do not have more information themselves'.
“The local travel agency in Rason says that this is temporary, but they have no other information afterwards, so there is no way to say how temporary this can be,” they said in the statement.
A representative told MailOnline today that there was still no news about what the border could have closed, and noted that the 'false' nature of rumors around the move.
The group had only recently confirmed that Reizen had finally resumed on February 20.
“At the moment, traveling is only possible to make Rason, but we hope that more areas will soon reopen,” a statement on the website was.
An example route for a trip of a week mentioned a visit to the coastal city of Wonsan, as well as a tour of the capital, Pyongyang and walks of the Sacred Mountain region of Mt. Myohyang.
In an attempt to be used to visitors to sandy Spanish beaches and grandiosis resort complexes, North Korea have long been pursuing a 'Benidorm style' zone on the west coast since at least 2015.
The resort apparently took the direction of the next 'research trip' to Spain in 2017, which it was said to have left visiting officers 'surprised'.
North Korea has since been building luxury hotels and recreational facilities in Wonsan Kalma, with one of the largest beach resorts with one operator in the world.
Plans previously showed that the resort could house up to 100,000 visitors at the same time.
A group of tourists were lucky to experience the journey before the doors closed
People walk in front of a village on the outskirts of the northeastern city of Rason in Noord -Korea, near the borders of both China and Russia, November 21, 2017
Originally set to open in May 2025, the holiday resort is on a flawless white beach also next to a rocket test site.
But according to the official Korean central news agency, the major opening of the resort will now be pushed back and he should be opened for tourists in June of this year.
Uncertainty follows from the message that is passed on to tour operators to pause operations for an indefinite period of time.
South Korean agencies estimate that around 880 Russian visitors were able to visit last year, and at least a dozen from the west traveled on five-day trips organized by Koryo Tours.
Before the pandemic limitations, around 350,000 people visited the country, an estimated 90 percent of them from China, according to the Institute for National Security Strategy Think Tank, run by the Intelligence Service of South Korea.
