Kim Jong Un travel tips

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Simon Cockerell, a manager at the travel agency Koryo Tours. It has been edited for length and clarity.

About 100 Russians flew to North Korea on Friday for a private tour, becoming the first foreign group to visit the reclusive state following the Covid-19 pandemic in a landmark trip summed up by the Russian embassy as “Pyongyang opens its door.”

An upcoming Russian tourist trip to North Korea is the first such inbound visit by vacationers there in four years. When people think of that country under the strict dictatorship of Kim Jong Un, they don’t think of tourism. So many will have questions about what kind of travel is possible.

Russian tourists could be the first international travellers to visit North Korea since the country's borders closed in January 2020 amid the global COVD-19 lockdown.

North Korea will welcome its first foreign tourists since closing its borders during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to news reports, a hint the isolated nation may be considering a revival of its small tourism industry amid growing tensions on the international stage.