Beijing has yet to halt its crackdown on North Korean workers in China or bilateral trade with Pyongyang, Daily NK has learned.

A China-based tour agency has begun taking bookings for an international marathon in Pyongyang next month, marking the latest sign of North Korea reopening to foreign tourists.

The country has halted international trips to a city near its border with China, travel agencies said, abruptly reversing Pyongyang's recent decision to reopen its frontier to tourism after five years of isolation.

North Korea has stopped tourists from visiting, just weeks after the first Western tourists entered the country for the first time in five years. North Korea sealed itself off at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, and started to scale back restrictions in the middle of 2023.

Rights groups say Pyongyang imposed excessive and unnecessary measures during pandemic that made ‘already isolated country even more repressive’

North Korean officials have suspended foreign tourism visits to the insular nation about a month after lifting restrictions for Western tourists, but did not say why the change was made.

Beijing-based tour operators are the first to lead groups into the reclusive nation’s Rason Special Economic Zone, which borders Russia and China.

North Korea has abruptly stopped international trips to a northeastern border city near China, less than three weeks after it opened it up for tourists since the pandemic. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

North Korean workers have been forced to work on Chinese fishing vessels for years on-end, facing verbal and physical abuse as well as harsh conditions. | TAG24

North Korea has reopened its borders to international tourists for the first time in five years, aiming to revive its struggling economy. The move primarily targets generating foreign currency through tourism,