North Korea (sort of) welcomes tourists again
The "hermit kingdom" of North Korea is coming out of isolation, finally welcoming Western tourists again, after sealing its borders at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Last week, a limited number of tour operators led visitors into the special economic zone of Rason, a remote city near the Chinese and Russian borders – and the only place in the socialist nation where free-market activities are allowed. Tourists from Australia, the UK, Jamaica and Germany were able to enter in time for the celebrations of late leader Kim Jong II's birthday – and the re-establishment of tours opens the door to much-needed tourism revenue.
North Korea was one of the first countries to shut its borders in reaction to the spread of Covid-19 in January 2020, and it's been the last to re-open them. In the past year, the government has only allowed "some official business delegations and Russian tourists to enter the country", said ABC News, while keeping its frontiers "sealed to the rest of the world".
But North Korea is "desperate for foreign currency", said Hazel Smith, a professor at London's SOAS University, who has lived in North Korea. They need it "not just for oil, but for basic technology like irrigation or health services," she told NBC News.
Before the pandemic, the country received "hundreds of thousands of Chinese tourists", said the broadcaster, who provided up to $175 million (£138 million) in extra revenue in 2019, according to the South Korea-based news outlet NK News.
"The return of tourists could help reshape North Korea's reputation, shifting it from a 'dangerous country' in the eyes of the international community to a potentially 'safe' travel destination," Dr Yee Ji Sun, a researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told The Independent.
The new tour itineraries include visits to a local brewery, a foreign language school and a taekwondo academy. But Pyongyang, the capital, remains closed to all but Russian tourists. Local markets are also off-limits to tourists, due to "lingering concerns over Covid", said the paper, while strict health measures, including temperature checks, are still in place at various locations.
The US prohibits its citizens from visiting North Korea, after the detention and death of 22-year-old American student Otto Warmbier in 2017. But some are still managing to get inside the secretive nation.
Justin Martell joined last week's small tourist delegation, becoming the first American known to step foot in North Korea since the onset of the pandemic. The Connecticut-born filmmaker was actually in North Korea when the US travel ban came into effect – and, by then, he had already visited the country 11 times. To bypass the ban, he has spent about a year obtaining expensive dual citizenship from Saint Kitts and Nevis, a Caribbean nation. "I didn't want to stop coming," he told CNN. "I didn't want the conversation to end."
Inside North Korea, "pandemic paranoia remains deeply entrenched", said the broadcaster. "There seems to be a rumour that Covid-19 got into the country via a balloon sent from South Korea," said Martell.
But he says that, last week, he didn't encounter any of the once typical anti-US hostility. The children who approached him at a local school "didn't care about politics", he said. "They wanted to know about music, sports – what life was like in the US. They wanted connection."
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At 3 a.m., the wife and I were 'consummating' our marriage on the balcony, when I looked up, and saw the bridge crew watching and giving us a thumbs up. Good times!" "During a cruise, my friend got drunk, lost his shoes, and was later found unconscious in an elevator with his legs sticking out. When the two employees who found him asked who he was, he gave them his roommate's name instead of his own." "The next day, the unaware roommate was called to the captain's quarters where he was informed of everything 'he' did (which the other friend actually did). He thought he had developed a drinking problem and stayed in his room contemplating life for a of this came to light when we were scrolling through pictures of the friend who actually did the stuff and saw the name tags of the two workers who found him. The innocent friend got a strike against his name on that cruise line, and he didn't even do anything."—cosmichuntress "I had joked about becoming a cruise ship performer. On day two of the cruise, I won a lip sync contest on the lido deck, and spent the next five days doing interviews and performing." "Once, when I worked on a Hawaiian cruise, we had to kick two younger guys off the ship and leave them on an island because they snuck into the crew areas and tried to put notes on doors, slide things under doors, etc. They walked all over the crew decks with no ID and tried to wreak havoc." "It was hilarious because they got stranded and left behind on their family trip. EVERY crew member who passed by them and didn't stop or report them was fired. We have to wear visible IDs, so the guys should have been caught beforehand."—liftoff_linaya "During our cruise, my sister decided to stay up late one night while my mom, my nephew, and I went to bed. We were all in the captain's suite when she heard someone say her name from outside the room. She walked out and asked, 'What?' When no one answered, she went back to bed, put her AirPods in, and then heard my mom, who was lying right next to her, say 'Hey,' but my mom was sound asleep. She freaked out about it, and we all thought it was weird." "The next day, she was taking a shower while my mom, my nephew, and I were out on the lido deck. She said she heard my nephew banging on the door, yelling 'Mama, Mama,' which wasn't possible as we were on the other side of the boat. At dinner later that day, it was announced that we had been in the Bermuda Triangle."—allidarlin "I was on a cruise with horrible food, so I only ate cheese and cold cuts. One night, there was no cheese, and I cried at the buffet, so a waiter got me a little bowl of cheese." "The first and only cruise I ever went on was a year ago: I sat in a hot tub with my husband and another couple, just shooting the breeze. The woman claimed to be a bit of a psychic and said I had a strong energy. I entertained it, and she told me to expect a promotion in the near future." "When I returned to work, I was called into a surprise meeting where I was offered a position to oversee all of marketing throughout our company."—kayakdollparts "I went on a cruise this month and watched a lady shave her bikini line while sitting on the edge of the ship's hot tub." "While on an Alaskan cruise, we hit an iceberg. Everyone casually gathered their life jackets while waiting for the damage assessment, then went back to gambling, eating, and watching shows while wearing their vests." "The band played the Titanic theme song, and the photographers took this time to utilize the bow backdrop, where hundreds of passengers did the famous 'Jack and Rose' pose."—brandeesummers Did any of these stories surprise you? Have you ever been on a chaotic cruise? Tell us in the comments or answer anonymously using the form below!
