North Koreans Resume Travel

Changes are on the horizon. North Koreans have resumed traveling in and out of the country. For the first time since the onset of COVID in January 2020, the country’s borders seem to be opening for routine travelers.

Only North Koreans are traveling at the moment, but multiple recent events suggest that travel in and out of the country may resume. On September 1st, North Korean embassies in Berlin, Bangkok, Singapore, Beijing, and the U.N. missions in New York and Geneva announced that they are opening their doors to celebrate North Korea’s 75th Founding Day on September 9th. This news was accompanied previously by a delegation of approximately 50 plus athletes sent to Kazakhstan on August 18th. Air Koyro flights from Beijing to Pyongyang also resumed to three flights a week at the end of August. As announced, it appears as though North Korea intends to send an athlete delegation to the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China from September 23 to October 8th.

North Korean Athletes Traveling to Kazakhstan

North Korean workers, students studying abroad, and embassy workers have been stuck outside the country throughout the COVID pandemic these past three and a half years. Although there is no indication that tourism will resume yet, it is a good sign that limited numbers of North Koreans have resumed traveling. Once embassy workers, North Korean laborers, and students have all had a chance to return home, it is possible that North Korean borders may re-open to the international community.

However, the political climate surrounding North Korea continues to worsen. President Biden, President Yoon from the Republic of Korea (ROK), and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida met at a summit at Camp David to coordinate joint military responses due to provocations and threats within the Indo-Pacific region. Joint military exercises among these three countries are expected to ensue.

Trilateral Talks at the Summit at Camp David

This trilateral partnership is producing a reactive response from North Korea, Russia, and China. Already Chairman Kim Jong Un plans to travel to Russia this month to meet with President Vladimir Putin. Russian has also proposed conducting three-way naval exercises with North Korea and China as Russia’s ambassador to North Korea, Alexander Matsegora, told media that this “seems appropriate” in response to security threats made by the U.S. and its allies.

Just when the North Korean borders seem to be opening and life resuming to normal, political threats may impede foreigners from traveling to and from North Korea. Thankfully, even though the Geographic Travel Restriction to North Korea (GTR) has been renewed for another year, the U.S. State Department continues to issue one-year or more multiple-entry Special Validation Passports for humanitarian workers to work in North Korea once borders do re-open. How North Korea will respond to these humanitarian groups, though, has yet to be seen.

In order for international relations with North Korea to resume to pre-COVID conditions, military aggression in the region needs to be deescalated. As a result, some humanitarian organizations are choosing to wait until ambassadors and diplomats return to Pyongyang before sending delegations into North Korea. For U.S. citizens, this would mean the return of Swedish ambassador Andreas Bengtsson to North Korea as the Swedish embassy is the liaison for the U.S., Canada, Australia, Italy, and other Nordic countries. Both the Russian and Chinese ambassadors have returned to North Korea, but most other embassies have yet to re-open in Pyongyang.