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North Korea Reopens to Tourists Just in Time for Late Leader’s Birthday

Experts say the isolated regime is “desperate for foreign currency.”

North Korea is opening up to foreign tourists for the first time since it sealed its borders in 2020 during the pandemic. Beijing-based Koryo Tours will host $720 tours of Rason, a city in the country’s northeast, for about 20 tourists who can visit thrilling locations such as the “Sea Cucumber Breeding Farm and Paekhaksan Combined Foodstuff Processing Factory.” It’s just in time for one of the most important dates in the North Korean calendar, celebrating the birth of the country’s late leader Kim Jong Il. Kim ran one of the world’s “most repressive governments,” according to Human Rights Watch, and his decisions helped prolong the 1990s famine, contributing to the death of millions. His birthday party usually includes mass dances, fireworks, and circus performers, according to the tour operator. U.S. citizens won’t be able to attend, as they are still banned following the death of American student Otto Warmbier, who was imprisoned in North Korea in 2016 and released in a vegetative state in 2017. He died a few months later.