North Korea (DPRK)

visit north korea from china

Why should you choose Koryo Tours?

Choosing to travel to unusual destinations such as North Korea is a big decision, and choosing the right people to take you is an incredibly important part of that. Learn about how we facilitate tourism responsibly in some of the most interesting and unique destinations on our planet, and at the same time ensure you get the most out of your once-in-a-lifetime experience .

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A tour to North Korea (DPRK) is the ultimate in adventure travel. Join Koryo Tours as we explore Pyongyang and some of North Korea's most remote locations for an experience you'll never forget, all in the safe hands of North Korea tour experts.

Our North Korea tours are designed with the purpose of making sure you see and do as much as possible on tour in North Korea (DPRK). Touring this country is the opportunity of a lifetime for many, and we use our 28 years of North Korea experience to ensure you get the most out of your time there. We have classic , speciality , and budget North Korea tours scheduled throughout the year. Get in touch for help on deciding which North Korea tour is best for you. Our experts are happy to answer all your questions. Unsure if a North Korea group tour is for you? Read Why Choose a Koryo Tours Group Tour or contact us. Alternatively, head to our North Korea Private Tours and get in touch for a bespoke North Korea tour itinerary. North Korea Country Profile North Korea FAQs North Korea Map NOTICE: The North Korea border is currently closed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Please check COVID-19 & North Korea for updated information. N0 Tours to North Korea (DPRK) will be taking place until the border is open again - the tours below are planned departure dates but until the country is open to tourists again all tours will remain suspended

Use the search function below to find tours. Please note that our tours for May Day start in April and tours for China National Day (1 October) start in September.

  • Pyongyang Marathon

Budget Tours

March 2024 — 1 tour, march 12 - march 16/17 2024.

Koryo North Korea Budget Tour Spring

4 nights in North Korea + travel time between Beijing and Pyongyang

A North Kore Budget Tour to see North Korea as it awakens from the cold of winter and welcomes spring From 845 EUR per person

Please apply by 27th February, 2024 .

March is an important time of year in Korea as the country emerges from the cold winter North Korea climate and into a much warmer, welcoming one. Although still a quiet time for tourism, North Koreans are getting busy in the countryside agricultural work begins in anticipation for the coming spring harvest.

On this tour, we take you to see the main sites of the capital city Pyongyang , including; a ride on the Pyongyang Metro , Juche Tower , Kim Il Sung Square , and a walk down one of Pyongyang’s newest streets. We will also head out of Pyongyang to go to Pyongsong , the centre of scientific research and the North-South Korea border DMZ .

This North Korea budget tour helps you get the most for your money on your trip to North Korea. Great for first-timers, or those with little time (or money!), we take you to see the main sites in and outside of Pyongyang. Be warned, there will be little time to for rest on this action-packed itinerary - not that you’ll want to, though!

For an idea of the itinerary of our longer tours take a look here .

Scroll down for an overview of our Koryo North Korea Budget Tour package highlights, tour itinerary, transport options , DPRK tourist visa information, and extra add-ons.

Koryo Tours International Tours

Mongolia | Turkmenistan | Kazakhstan | Bhutan | Russia | Tajikistan  

  • Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, Grand Mausoleum of the DPRK leadership.
  • Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum, a world-class museum of the Korean War and the site of the captured USS Pueblo.
  • Panmunjom and the Demilitarized Zone: signing hall of the 1953 armistice and Joint Security Area.

Briefing Day

March 11 | monday.

*Pre-Tour Briefing | We require all travellers to attend a pre-tour briefing that covers regulations, etiquette, safety, and practicalities for travel in North Korea. The briefing lasts approximately one hour followed by a question and answer session. Please be punctual for the briefing. You can come early, meet your fellow travellers, and pay any outstanding tour fees. A proper briefing is an essential part of travel to North Korea. For this tour, we will hold two briefings. One in the morning for those departing by train this afternoon and the other in the afternoon for those departing by flight the next day.

  • Recommended latest arrival in Beijing.
  • 10:00   | Briefing for those departing by train.
  • 16:00   |   Briefing for those departing by flight.  
  • 17:27 |   Train travellers depart Beijing Station by Chinese domestic sleeper train to Dandong , the Chinese city on the border with North Korea. Please arrange independent travel to the train station and arrive at least an hour and a half early for the train departure.

Overnight   |   Hotel in Beijing not included in the tour for those taking the flight the next day. Contact us for recommendations near our office! Those travelling by train will spend the night on the train.

March 12 | Tuesday

Arrival day in Pyongyang

  • Train transfer at Dandong Station from overnight sleeper train to Dandong-Pyongyang local. Our local representative in Dandong will assist with the transfer. Train crosses the China-North Korea border followed by North Korean customs and immigration.
  • Flight departure from Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) Terminal 2 on Air Koryo flight JS152 at 12:55. A 1.5-hour flight with basic lunch ( vegetarian option is subject to availability). Check-in starts 3 hours prior to departure.
  • Flight arrival to Pyongyang's Sunan International Airport (FNJ) at 15:55. DPRK immigration and customs, meet your Korean guides and transfer to the city.
  • Kim Il Sung Square | Pyongyang’s central square lined with government ministries, museums, and The Grand People’s Study House.
  • Train arrival to Pyongyang Railway Station at 18:45.
  • Walk on Future Scientists' Street  | An evening stroll through one of Pyongyang's newest neighbourhoods.

Overnight |   Ryanggang Hotel, Pyongyang . The Two Rivers Hotel (so named as it sits on a hill overlooking the point where the Potong River and Taedong Rivers meet). The hotel offers great views over different parts of the city (depending on which side of the building you stay on) from the open balconies, and also from the ‘swivelling’ restaurant. The underground karaoke room here is excellent and the bar in the lobby is also great.

March 13 | Wednesday

Kaesong City and DMZ Tour

  • Kaesong   |  Drive south (2.5 hour drive)  to the historic capital of the medieval Koryo Dynasty (918-1392 AD). Once located in South Korea, the city changed hands during the Korean War. It is now located just north of the DMZ.
  • Panmunjom and DMZ | The site of the signing of the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War and demarcation line between north and south. On some days it is possible to visit the hut straddling the line, where negotiations between both sides once took place. Here we will be accompanied by military guides from the Korean People's Army.
  • Kaesong Koryo Museum (Songgyungwan Academy) | Once the Songgyung Academy, a Confucian school, and now a museum on the Koryo Dynasty exhibiting historical objects, statues, pagodas, and porcelain from that era. A UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  • Kaesong Korean Stamp Exhibition Hall | Store selling stamps, postcards, local ginseng , souvenirs, art, and more! One of the best postcard collections in the country and friendly staff.
  • Traditional Royal Korean Lunch ( pangsanggi ) | A meal made of 12 dishes served in brass bowls fit for the kings of old. The more dishes, the more distinguished the guest! Traditional Korean 'sweet meat soup' is an option here ( 5 EUR ).
  • Janam Hill | Statues of the DPRK leadership on a hill overlooking Kaesong city and historic pavilion used for archery demonstrations in days of yore.
  • Drive back to the capital city  via  Sariwon  ( 2-hour drive ) the provincial seat of North Hwanghae Province and a centre of agriculture and industry.  
  • Migok Co-Operative Farm  | An example of a North Korean co-operative farm. Visit the farm museum, a farmhouse and a viewpoint overlooking the Chaeryong Plains.  
  • Sariwon Folk Village and City View | Mock-up of a traditional Korean town which includes a history museum, food street, and pavilions. There is a small tavern selling Makkoli, traditional rice wine. Climb a nearby hill for a view of Sariwon City and the surrounding plains.  
  • From Sariwon another hour of driving to Pyongyang .
  • Foreign Languages Bookshop | Store selling Korean publications translated into English, German, French, Russian, Chinese, and Spanish. Also pick up DVDs, postcards, and small works of art.
  • Kwangbok Department Store | Shop with the citizens of Pyongyang and exchange for Korean currency! Try the snack stands for some of Pyongyang’s best local eats.

Overnight |  Ryanggang Hotel, Pyongyang

March 14 | Thursday

Pyongyang City Tour

  • Kumsusan Palace of the Sun  | Mausoleum of the DPRK leadership where President Kim Il Sung and Leader Kim Jong Il lie in state and the most solemn location in the country. Visitations are by special request only and formal dress is required.  Men require collared shirt with tie, dark non-jean pants, and dark shoes. Women require covered shoulders, knee-length dress or pants, and closed toed shoes. The visit will take most of the morning and visitors are asked to bow a number of times inside. This is a state administered site and visits are subject to local conditions.  
  • Mansudae Grand Monument  | Enormous bronze statues of President Kim Il Sung and Leader Kim Jong Il overlooking downtown Pyongyang. A presentation of flowers and bow by the group is customary here ( 5 EUR ). Please note this is a government-administered sight and visits are subject to cancellation. Visits are optional and require a certain dresscode (close-toed shoes and covered legs and shoulders).
  • Pyongyang Metro Tour | One of the deepest metro systems in the world with stunning artwork reflecting the name of each station. Ride six stations on the Chollima Line.
  • Arch of Triumph | A 60-m archway commemorating the liberation of Korea from Japanese colonial rule and larger than its counterpart in Paris.
  • Victorious Fat herlan d Liberation War Museum  |  Tour this world-class museum led by a local museum guide. Renovated in 2012 and it exhibits the Korean War from the DPRK perspective containing artefacts, documents, photos, and lifelike dioramas. The exterior grounds house the War Victory Monument and displays of Korean People’s Army Hero Equipment and captured equipment from the US military, including the USS Pueblo . Central to the understanding of the country today and highlight of the trip.
  • Mangyongdae Schoolchildren’s Palace | Tour one of Pyongyang’s centres of extracurricular excellence with study rooms for fine arts, dance, sports, and music, then watch a spectacular performance put on by the students.
  • Pyongsong   | A satellite city of Pyongyang and centre of scientific research. A 45-minute to 1-hour drive .

Overnight | Jangsusan Hotel , Pyongsong. The only hotel in Pyongsong open for tourists, an excellent bar with one of the best bartenders in the DPRK makes this hotel one of the most fun in the whole country! Basic facilities with fairly reliable electricity and hot water. Billiards, karaoke, haircut, and outdoor eateries in summer.

March 15 | Friday

Pyongsong and Pyongyang City Tours

  • Pyongsong City Square | Central square of Pyongsong City with statues of the DPRK leadership and flanked by the provincial revolutionary museum. Presentation of flowers customary.  
  • Kim Jong Suk Higher Middle School | One of the DPRK’s top middle schools for gifted students, tourists are encouraged to help teach an English class!  
  • Paeksong Revolutionary Site | Location of Kim Il Sung University during the Korean war. Tour the old classrooms and hear about how students lived during the war.
  • Pyongyang  |   Return to the capital. 45 minute to 1-hour drive.
  • Mangyongdae Native House  | Birthplace and childhood home of President Kim Il Sung. A traditional Korean house in a beautiful natural surrounding.
  • Monument to the Party Foundation | Iconic structure featuring the hammer, sickle, writing brush which represent the workers, farmers, and intellectuals that make up the Worker’s Party of Korea.
  • Tower of the Juche Idea | Iconic tower dedicated to the DPRK’s guiding philosophy and located on the Taedong River. Take the elevator to the top for great views of the city ( elevator ticket is 5 EUR ).
  • Mansugyo Beer Bar | A bar serving seven types of beer. Popular with locals after work and on weekends. Best place to drink pints with local people.
  • Golden Lane Bowling Centre | Where Pyongyang locals go for their ten-pin fix ( 2.5 EUR per person per game ). Also has billiards and arcade games. Non-bowlers can head next door to the Kumrung Leisure Centre for an air gun shooting range ( approximately 6 EUR per 20 round cartridge ) and some of the best coffee in Pyongyang.
  • Farewell Dinner | We'll enjoy a final group dinner at the Golden Lanes Bowling Centre's bulgogi BBQ restaurant.

March 16 | Saturday

Departure Day from Pyongyang and Return to Beijing by flight or train. Please confirm your preferred transport method upon booking*

  • Flight departure from Pyongyang on Air Koryo Flight JS151 at 08:35 with scheduled arrival at Beijing Capital Airport (PEK) Terminal 2 at 09:55.
  • Train departure by train to Beijing at 10:25 with transfer in Dandong. The scheduled arrival is to Beijing Station on Sunday March 17 at 08:40. For this tour the default option is hard sleeper (six beds per berth).

End of Tour

Transport | Train and Flights to North Korea (Standard)

This tour travels between Beijing-Pyongyang by train each way in a hard-sleeper carriage (6 bunks per compartment). The train journey takes 24 hours with a transfer at the city of Dandong. One-way or round-trip flights are also available. The flight takes around 90 minutes. For an extra 199 EUR you can upgrade to a one-way flight. A round-trip ticket costs an additional 299 EUR.

Visit the DPRK border town of Sinuiju

If you're heading back to Beijing by train this option lets you get off for an overnight in Dongrim before the next day's tour of Sinuiju — the border city with China. Spend an extra 24 hours in the DPRK seeing the sites of North Pyongan province. You will then continue on through to Beijing.

Visit Dandong — the Chinese gateway to the DPRK

Instead of immediately returning to Beijing when your tour ends you can take some extra time to visit this fascinating border city, which directly faces the DPRK town of Sinuiju, but lies on the Chinese side of the Yalu River. We offer both one-night and two-night fully guided extensions that take in all the sights of Dandong, with a special North Korea theme.

Upgrade to your own room

All hotel rooms on our all-inclusive group tours feature twin beds, and will be shared. If you'd like a room to yourself then you can upgrade for an extra 40 EUR per night.

Insurance for up to six nights

We're unable to take you on one of our tours if you do not have medical insurance that covers the destination in question. Issues of isolation and infrastructure where we go mean it would be irresponsible of us to do so. We can provide this if you do not have it — or you can use your own.

What is / is not included?

  • Train Beijing – Pyongyang with transfer at Dandong Train Pyongyang – Beijing with transfer at Dandong
  • All meals on the tour except for meals on the train
  • Hotel accommodation
  • Two local Korean guides, and a driver per group
  • A Koryo Tours tour leader
  • All transportation in the DPRK

NOT INCLUDED

  • DPRK visa fee 60 EUR.
  • Optional Air Koryo flights (one-way: 199 EUR; return: 299EUR).
  • Optional single room supplement of 40 EUR per night.
  • Tips for the local Korean guides and driver (approx 10-15 EUR per day).
  • Optional activities such as the lift up the Juche Tower (5 EUR) or a visit to the funfair (approx. 2 EUR entrance fee per person).
  • Entry tickets for special events if applicable – for example Pyongyang Circus (approx. 20 EUR per person).
  • Meals include a complimentary beer and water, but you will need to purchase extra drinks if needed.
  • Spending money for souvenirs.
  • SINUIJU EXTENSION: RMB 50 for the bus across the bridge to Dandong to be paid on the spot to the local guides.

Our Koryo Budget Tours are capped at 25 people per group. Groups will be in the experienced hands of two or three local Korean guides and a Koryo Tours tour leader. Please note that when on tour your day-to-day itinerary may differ to what is advertised above. Your tour leader will ensure, however, that everything available at the time is covered, and replacement options are provided where needed. We will also add in extras when there is time (such as a visit to a local bar or amusement park).

We visit the DPRK regularly so know all the best places to go, and how to make the most of your days there to guarantee the experience of a lifetime. After the tour, we will send out a list of all participants' emails so you can keep in touch, swap photos etc. If you do not wish to be on this list then please let us know.

April 2024 — 4 tours

June 2024 — 2 tours, july 2024 — 2 tours, august 2024 — 3 tours, september 2024 — 5 tours, october 2024 — 2 tours, november 2024 — 1 tour, december 2024 — 2 tours, january 2025 — 2 tours, february 2025 — 2 tours, next tour departure dates, east pyongyang.

As seen from the top of the Juche Tower - this is a mainly residential district

Mass Dance - Pyongyang

Mass Dances are held on all major holidays. particpants number from 3000 to 50,000. Tourists can even join in!

Ryugyong Hotel - Pyongyang

Iconic 105-storey building towering over the capital. Koryo Tours have even been to the top of this!

Farming - East Coast

Korea is mainly mountains but has farmland too - a trip to the countryside gives a sense of what rural life is like

Youth Funfair - Pyongyang

A great place to visit in the evening, popular with locals and with all Italian-made rides

Fishing Village - East Coast

Bounded by seas to east and west the villages along the coasts are mainly populated by fishermen catching all manner of seafood

Kwangbok Street - Pyongyang

One of Pyongyang's famous mega-highways. with a dozen lanes accommodating far more cars than ever need to use it

Reunification Monument

On the road from the capital heading south - this monument symbolises ongoing hopes for peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula

People's Theatre - Pyongyang

Home of the famous Moranbong Band - the DPRK's iconic rock/pop/ensemble

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North Korea welcomes first post-pandemic visitors: China and Russia

visit north korea from china

TOKYO — North Korea this week opened its borders to visitors for the first time since the pandemic began, with a clear message: Pyongyang has friends in Beijing and Moscow, despite the U.S.-led efforts to isolate all three.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, flanked by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese Politburo member Li Hongzhong, watched a huge military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice agreement, according to photos released by North Korean state media Friday.

Shoigu, who is overseeing the invasion of Ukraine, was the first Russian defense minister to visit North Korea since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

China, Russia draw North Korea closer than ever

The message was unequivocal: Russia and China are standing by North Korea despite its nuclear and weapons buildup. It also signaled that, after more than three years of strict border closures, North Korea is slowly beginning to crack open its doors.

At Thursday night’s parade, North Korea showcased new drones and some of its short-range missiles that are designed to carry nuclear warheads, state media said.

Earlier in the week, Kim guided Shoigu through a defense exhibition featuring ballistic missiles that are banned under the U.N. Security Council resolutions originally adopted with support from Russia and China. In recent years, Beijing and Moscow have hampered the council’s efforts to punish North Korea after repeated tests of the banned missiles.

“China and Russia are special partners for North Korea at this moment,” said Wi Sung-lac, former South Korean ambassador to Russia. “In effect, China and Russia are sort of enablers for North Korea to go ahead with the nuclear and missile program. … That’s very much worrisome and frustrating.”

The Korean War ended with an armistice agreement signed on July 27, 1953. But the two Koreas remain technically at war because there was never an official peace treaty. According to Pyongyang’s official version of events, it was the victim of South Korean and American aggression, and victor of the war.

North Korea celebrates the anniversary as “Victory Day,” while South Korea marks the beginning of its security alliance with the United States.

At the end of World War II, the then Soviet Union helped usher in a communist regime in the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and supported leader Kim Il Sung’s invasion of the pro-American South in 1950. The Chinese fought side-by-side with the North Koreans in the war.

The delegations’ visits came as Beijing and Moscow have drawn Pyongyang closer in an effort to reduce U.S. influence in the region. China has made a strategic overture to North Korea since the collapse of U.S.-North Korea diplomatic talks in 2019. Meanwhile, Pyongyang has become a vocal supporter of Moscow, even becoming one of five countries that declined to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine .

Russia and North Korea vowed to bolster their “militant friendship and cooperation” to “cope with the ever-changing regional and international security environment,” according to Pyongyang’s official report. Shoigu read a congratulatory speech sent by Russian President Vladimir Putin, state media said.

U.S. intelligence officials have said Russia is buying artillery shells and rockets from North Korea, a claim that Pyongyang has denied.

Shoigu’s visit was a stark contrast to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s visit to Kyiv this month, pledging a new batch of military supplies and more humanitarian aid to support Ukraine.

“The current situation facing Ukraine reminds us of the past situation of the Republic of Korea,” Yoon said in a joint news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, referring to the 1950 North Korean invasion of the South.

Meanwhile, the United States, South Korea and Japan are increasing their security cooperation in the face of North Korean threats, and the leaders of the three countries are expected next month to hold their first summit not on the sidelines of a multilateral forum.

“On the occasion of this event, North Korea, China and Russian solidarity is highlighted,” Wi, the former South Korean ambassador to Russia, said of this week’s gathering. They are answering signs of solidarity from Seoul, Washington and Tokyo, he said.

North Korea’s reopening to the delegations this week raised questions about whether it may be gearing up for a full border reopening. But state media reports have not indicated whether any policy shifts may be coming.

Li, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress, is the most senior Chinese official to visit North Korea since the start of the pandemic.

Li has served as Communist Party secretary of some of China’s most economically important areas, including Shenzhen and Tianjin. He also gave Kim a personal letter from China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, according to North Korean and Chinese state media.

North Korea’s latest ballistic missile is its most powerful yet

In 2018, a higher-ranking Chinese official, Li Zhanshu, went to North Korea to mark the anniversary, suggesting that this year Beijing may be slightly downplaying the relationship. Chinese state media has emphasized the ties between the two countries’ communist parties in descriptions of the visit.

At the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s daily press briefings this week, spokeswoman Mao Ning emphasized the historical ties between the neighbors.

“Our two parties and the two countries have had a good tradition of friendly exchanges,” Mao told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday. “Having a high-level Chinese delegation visit the DPRK and mark the occasion shows the high importance both sides attach to our bilateral ties,” she said, using the abbreviation for North Korea’s official name.

China’s new ambassador to North Korea, Wang Yajun, was also in attendance at the 70th anniversary banquet, according to state media. Wang, who took up his post in March, is believed to be the first foreign diplomat to be accredited to Pyongyang since the pandemic.

Meaghan Tobin and Theodora Yu in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to this report.

visit north korea from china

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China will send delegation to North Korea to celebrate its founding as the nations foster ties

Liu Guozhong, then vice governor of China's Heilongjiang provincial government, speaks during a presentation about economic cooperation between South Korea and the Chinese northeastern province in Seoul, South Korea, July 25, 2012. A Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier Liu will visit North Korea to participate in celebrations for its 75th founding anniversary, which is on Saturday, the North's state media said Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023. (Park Ji-ho/Yonhap via AP)

Liu Guozhong, then vice governor of China’s Heilongjiang provincial government, speaks during a presentation about economic cooperation between South Korea and the Chinese northeastern province in Seoul, South Korea, July 25, 2012. A Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier Liu will visit North Korea to participate in celebrations for its 75th founding anniversary, which is on Saturday, the North’s state media said Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023. (Park Ji-ho/Yonhap via AP)

FILE - In this photo provided by the North Korean government, a huge North Korean flag is displayed during a celebration of the nation’s 73rd anniversary at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea on Sept. 9, 2021. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: “KCNA” which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier Liu Guozhong will visit North Korea to participate in celebrations for its 75th founding anniversary, which is on Saturday, the North’s state media said Thursday.

The report came amid speculation that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is preparing to visit Russia soon for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that could focus on North Korean arms sales to refill Russian reserves drained by its war on Ukraine.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said the visit by Liu’s delegation comes at the invitation of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party. It didn’t specify the events the Chinese officials would participate in or whether they would meet Kim.

North Korea didn’t immediately say whether a Russian delegation was also invited for the celebrations, which are expected to be highlighted by a parade of North Korean militia units.

A U.S. official said Monday that Washington expects Kim to make a trip to Russia within this month to meet Putin as the Kremlin tries to acquire military equipment for its war in Ukraine.

Military officers and delegates leave the Great Hall of the People after attending the second plenary session of the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, Friday, March 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

According to some U.S. reports, the meeting could happen as early as next week in the eastern Russian city of Vladivostok, where Putin is expected to attend an annual economic forum that runs from Sunday to Wednesday.

South Korean intelligence officials believe Russia and North Korea may arrange a “surprise” route for Kim’s visit to avoid potential venues reported by the media, according to lawmaker Yoo Sang-bum, who attended a closed-door briefing with officials from Seoul’s National Intelligence Service.

In exchange for providing Russia with artillery shells and other ammunition, North Korea could seek badly needed energy and food aid and advanced weapons technologies, analysts say. There are concerns that potential Russian technology transfers would increase the threat posed by Kim’s growing arsenal of nuclear weapons and missiles that are designed to target the United States and its Asian allies, South Korea and Japan.

Amid deepening nuclear tensions with Washington, Seoul and Tokyo, Kim has been trying to boost the visibility of his partnerships with Moscow and Beijing as he seeks to break out of diplomatic isolation and have North Korea be a part of a united front against the United States.

Kim in July invited delegations led by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese Communist Party Politburo member Li Hongzhong to a huge military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, where he rolled out his most powerful weapons, including intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to target the U.S. mainland.

A day before the parade, Kim took Shoigu on a tour of a domestic arms exhibition, which demonstrated North Korea’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and added to suspicions the North was willing to supply arms to Russia.

Speaking at a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Wednesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol urged all U.N. member states to fulfill their obligations under existing Security Council resolutions to maintain sanctions against North Korea designed to limit its nuclear capabilities, including a ban on arms trade with the country, his office said in a statement. It did not say whether Yoon specifically mentioned Russia while expressing those concerns.

Find more of AP’s Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific

visit north korea from china

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The Planet Edit

How To Travel to North Korea as a Tourist

How to travel to North Korea

Note: Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, North Korea’s borders have been completely closed to foreigners. As of right now, it is not possible to go to North Korea.

Quite a few of my friends were shocked to discover I was travelling to North Korea. “I didn’t even know you could go to North Korea, let alone join a tour group!” they exclaimed.

Yup, against common belief, it is possible to travel to North Korea. And it’s actually surprisingly easy.

Almost anyone can visit North Korea, with the exception of citizens of South Korea and the United States. It was only recently (September 2019) that the US government banned its citizens from travelling to North Korea, and this may be reversed in time now that Donald Trump is out of office.

In this blog post, I’ll walk you through how to travel to North Korea as a tourist, explaining everything you need to know about tours, visas and travelling into the country itself.

How To Travel To North Korea: The Logistics

There are very few places from where you can enter North Korea — you can’t simply book a flight from London to Pyongyang! You will most likely need to go through China, which shares a border with North Korea. You’ll also need to book onto a government-run tour group, as you cannot visit North Korea independently.

With this in mind, there are three things you’ll need to do in order to visit North Korea as a tourist:

  • Book onto a tour
  • Arrange a Chinese visa
  • Organise transport to China

1) Book Onto A Tour

To visit North Korea, you must book onto a tour group. You cannot visit North Korea independently as the country’s government simply doesn’t allow this. Any visit to North Korea will be an all-inclusive tour with an organized itinerary — there is no getting around this.

Your tour group is ultimately controlled by the Government via the Korean International Travel Company. This means your itinerary is set in stone, with no room for free exploration or solo adventuring. You will be escorted at all times by two guides and a driver.

There are a few tour operators who run trips in North Korea, and these are Lupine Travel , Young Pioneers and Koryo Group . I personally went with Lupine Travel, although it seems as though the three companies are all fairly similar.

There is quite a well-pathed tourist route which most if not all, tourists are taken on. This goes to all the main  attractions in Pyongyang , to the Demilitarised Zone on the border of South Korea and to a mountainous region in the north.

Once you choose the tour you want to go on and have booked it, the tour operator will take care of a lot of the logistics for you, including your return transport into North Korea from China, your North Korean visa and your accommodation, food and itinerary once in North Korea.

The tour company probably will not take care of your return transport to China from your home country, or your Chinese visa (although they will help you with this).

Once you’re booked onto a tour, the company will liaise with you prior to your trip, ensuring they have everything they need from you and that you have everything ready, as well.

2) Get Your Chinese Visa

My tour with Lupine Travel started and ended in Beijing. This meant I required a Dual Entry Chinese Visa, as I would technically be entering China twice: once via a flight from London, and then again when I left North Korea.

The Chinese visa can be a little tricky. I’ve applied for and received 2 Chinese visas in the last decade, and they were a bit of a hassle on both occasions. There are a lot of forms to fill out and it can get complicated. Be sure to read through the documents carefully and answer everything truthfully.

For your Chinese visa, you will need:

  • Your passport: with remaining validity of at least 6 months and with blank visa pages.
  • Visa Application Form: truthfully completed and type-written.
  • A photo: taken within the last six months; full face against a light background; size: 48mm x 33mm; bare-headed unless for religious reasons.

You can visit a Chinese embassy or Chinese Visa Application Centre to hand in your documents, or you can mail it. It typically takes four working days to process your application, but it’s recommended that you apply about 2 months before, as there can be issues. They rejected my photo on one occasion and I had to resubmit it, for example.

Once approved and processed, you can go and collect your passport and visa. The fee for a Chinese visa is £150 / $140.

Visit the Chinese Visa Application Service Center to apply for your visa.

The tour company you booked with will handle your North Korean tourist visa for you. All you’ll need to do is fill in a few simple forms and send over a scanned copy of your passport. Your guide will then give you your North Korean visa once you meet up with your tour group.

North Korea Visa

3) Book Your Transport To China

As your tour to North Korea likely starts in China, you’ll need to book flights or some other form of transport to China, as this is probably not included in your tour package. Check which city your tour’s meeting place is — mine met at the train station in Beijing, but some meet in the city of Dandong, which is on the border of China and North Korea.

Flights from Europe start from about £500. You can search for cheap flights on Skyscanner.

Travelling into North Korea from China

As mentioned above, your tour company will take care of the logistics of your transport into and out of North Korea from China. You’ll most likely meet your tour group in Beijing or Dandong, and then travel with them from there into North Korea, either by train or plane. It depends on the tour company you go with as to whether you’ll go by train or plane. You will be escorted at all times on your transit into and out of North Korea.

The sleeper train departs Beijing in the late afternoon and goes through Northeast China overnight, before reaching the border at around midday.

Once at the border, North Korean soldiers will come onboard to do visa, passport and luggage checks. I found the experience quite intimidating; they poked around in my backpack and asked me to explain what some things were. I remember a fellow traveller on my tour awkwardly explaining what his beard trimmer was used for.

You will also be given forms asking you to declare electronic devices that you’re bringing into the country. I’d advise that you don’t bring any devices with you if possible — you won’t be able to use the internet or make phone calls anyway, and you may be asked to open it up and show the soldiers your files.

Be certain that you do not have religious material, pornography, or memes/other insulting material about North Korea on your device.

It can take a few hours to cross the North Korean entry customs. Once through, you’ll spend about 5 hours travelling through the scenic North Korean countryside before arriving in Pyongyang .

Lauren Pears on the train to North Korea

Another way to enter North Korea from China is to take an aeroplane, which is much quicker than the train but certainly less scenic. Air Koryo runs three to four flights from Beijing to Pyongyang each week, as well as weekly flights from Shanghai, Shenyang and Dandong.

I took the train myself, so I don’t have first-hand insight into what the plane is like. But apparently, you’re welcomed on board with songs about socialism and Kim Jong-un, as well as magazines that showcase the ‘fatherly leader’ and the heinous war crimes of Japan and the US.

Tourism in North Korea: Frequently asked questions

There are lots of unique rules and regulations around travelling to North Korea as a foreigner, so let’s break these down.

How Much Does It Cost To Visit North Korea?

The North Korean tour companies I mentioned above organise all-inclusive packages. This means all of your meals, transport within the country and hotel will be included in the price. Tour prices range massively — between about £400 and £3500 depending on the length of your tour and the company you choose to go with.

  • Lupine Travel tours start at £569 ($740)
  • Young Pioneers tours start at £444 ($578)
  • Koryo Group tours start at £448 ($583)

You should also bear in mind the cost of getting to North Korea. My  flight from London to Beijing  (the starting point of the tour) was about £500.

Monument to Party Founder, Pyongyang, North Korea

Is It Safe To Visit North Korea?

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advises against all but essential travel to North Korea. They note that “the security situation in North Korea can change with little notice and with no advance warning of possible actions by the North Korean authorities.” However, the FCO also advises the same for many parts of Turkey and Egypt, which are still frequently visited by tourists.

Tensions between North Korea and the United States have calmed and North Korea announced a halt to its missile testing in April 2018. It is now arguably much safer to visit the country than when  I visited in August 2017 .

As long as you follow all the rules outlined to you before you enter North Korea, travel is ‘deemed safe’ in that you are never alone and are not going to be the target of petty crimes such as theft.

While there is definitely some risk in visiting North Korea, if you follow the rules and remain respectful, there should be no issues. Terrorism and crimes towards tourists are highly unlikely and detainment of tourists is rare!

Kim Il Sung Square, Pyongyang, North Korea

What Are The Rules For Tourists In North Korea?

  • Your every movement is watched and monitored and,  under no circumstance , can you wander off on your own. Doing so will result in serious consequences for both you and your tour guide.
  • The country dislikes the term North Korea and prefers to be called the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK for short.
  • Do not speak negatively about the country or the leaders. Disrespecting the country is viewed as a major offence and has caused problems for tourists in the past.
  • You cannot take photos of everything. You’re allowed to take photos of tourist attractions etc, but it is forbidden to photograph the military, labourers or construction sites, among other things.
  • You must ensure that any photos of statues of the leaders must capture their whole body — no close-ups or chopping off their feet from the frame.
  • Your belongings will be thoroughly searched at the border. It is forbidden to bring religious material, porn or literature or film about North Korea into the country. Please, for heaven’s sake, do not try to bring a copy of  The Interview  into North Korea. Confiscated possessions may not be returned at the border.
  • Practising religion is not allowed. North Korea is an atheist country and practising religion there is highly restricted. Praying or showing off a bible is a great way to get detained.
  • You cannot speak with random citizens during your time in North Korea, as doing so may be considered espionage.

War Museum, Pyongyang, North Korea

Will Visiting North Korea Affect Whether Other Countries Grant Me Entry?

Not at all! There are no restrictions on entering any country due to previous entry into North Korea — including South Korea and the United States. In fact, it’s unlikely that border controls will even know you’ve been to North Korea because your visa is issued on a separate piece of paper and your passport is not stamped.

My Experience Visiting North Korea

I found my time in North Korea to actually feel a lot more relaxed than I anticipated. When I first arrived, I was a little nervous and tried not to look at anybody for too long or seem disrespectful in any way.

However, by the end of my second day in North Korea, I felt more relaxed and realised that I just had to follow the rules. I stuck with my tour group, asked permission to take photos, didn’t question any “facts” the tour guides stated about their country, and didn’t try to interact with random locals. In doing this, all was well.

The country was extremely different to how I imagined it and threw a lot of my preconceptions out the window.

I was surprised, for example, to find that Pyongyang was a very picturesque and modern city. I think I had expected it to look kind of grey and old. I was also surprised to see that the countryside was absolutely beautiful, with rolling hills and vivid green colours.

Of course, I also saw plenty of things that upset, angered or confused me a little, such as the phenomenal amount of blatant propaganda and the fact that a guy on my tour got told off for buying ice cream from a nearby stall.

READ MORE:  My North Korea Travel Experience – What’s It Really Like?

Lauren Pears at Pyongyang Metro Station

What Do You Get To See In North Korea?

The key thing to bear in mind is that you won’t get to see the  real  North Korea. You’ll be ferried from place to place — mostly within Pyongyang — with zero opportunity for independent exploration. You’ll only see what they allow you to see, in what I believe is a very tightly controlled tourist route.

Monuments And Squares

A trip to North Korea will most definitely involve visiting the sites  they want you to see , such as Kim Il Sung Square, the Founding Party Monument, the captured US spy ship USS Pueblo, Kim Il Sung’s native home and many more. These are, what I would call, showpieces of the regime.

Mansudae Hill, Pyongyang, North Korea

The Pyongyang Metro

At 110 metres underground, the Pyongyang metro is the deepest metro station in the world. Covered in propaganda, images of the Kim family, and with station names such as ‘Comrade’, ‘Glory’ and ‘Reunification’, North Korea’s metro is really quite an experience.

While it was definitely the most interesting metro journey I’ve ever been on, the whole scenario was somehow quite strange. You can only ride 5 of the 16 stops — perhaps there’s something secret beyond stop 5.

Tourists on the Pyongyang Metro, North Korea

The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is a strip of land running along the Korean Peninsula. It is used as a buffer zone between North and South Korea, and is 160 miles long and 2.5 miles wide.

While tourists can easily visit the DMZ in South Korea, this is a chance to see it from the other side and, of course, hear the story from North Korea’s perspective.

The DMZ, North Korea

The Kaeson Funfair

The Kaeson Funfair was the only place we were allowed to wander around somewhat freely. Our guides let us mingle with the locals a little and stood guard along the pathways leading to the entry and exit points.

We were, however, told that we should skip all the queues and go straight onto any ride we wanted, because “we’re Western.” This annoyed me, as I didn’t feel that this presented a good view of us as Westerners to the citizens of North Korea. Perhaps they didn’t mind, but as a Brit, orderly queues are an essential part of my culture!

Kaeson Funfair, Pyongyang, North Korea

Is It Ethical To Visit North Korea?

This is the most important question you should ask yourself before visiting North Korea: is it ethical?

There is a view that visiting North Korea is potentially helping to  fund the regime . I.e. that you’re helping to fund horrific human rights atrocities and nuclear programmes. However, I believe that the money North Korea receives from tourism is very small. With only 10,000 tourists a year, most of which are from China, how much can they  really  be making from this? It’s not like tourism in North Korea is a booming industry.

I also strongly believe that completely stripping a country of exposure to other cultures and attitudes is detrimental. Contact with the outside world helps to improve the citizens’ views of outsiders, which is a good thing since they’ve held a very bad view of the West for decades. Peace and progression within North Korea are certainly never going to occur if its citizens aren’t exposed to anything other than what they already know.

It’s certainly not a black-and-white answer and is something that you should consider carefully.

READ MORE:  Is It Ethical To Visit North Korea?

Lauren Pears in Kyrgyzstan

About The Author

Lauren Pears is a freelance travel writer and blogger based in London. She writes about active adventure travel, aiming to encourage and inspire travellers to make the most of the great outdoors.

Thank you for reading! If you found this post useful, I’d be grateful if you would consider using the affiliate links below when planning your travels. I’ll make a small commission at no extra cost to you. This will help me to keep this blog running. Thanks for your support – Lauren. Hotels –  Booking.com Hostels –  Hostelworld Cheap flights –  Skyscanner Travel insurance –  World Nomads Outdoor gear –  Decathlon  /  GO Outdoors Cycling gear –  Chain Reaction Cycles Alternatively, you could buy me a coffee to say thanks!

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I got curious about visiting North Korea since I saw a pic of someone else’s tour there. I didn’t even know it was possible to visit! But then my bubble burst since finding out that it has stopped since covid 🙁 anyways, thanks for writing this, it’s done plenty to satiate my curiosity for now haha

Thanks for reading Monica! Tours will likely open up again at some point in the future 🙂

very good and very detailed article.

Thanks John!

Very informative article on a unique topic, so much appreciated 🙂 I agree with the final message that there is a reciprocal value in connecting with people and cultures all around the world.

Glad you found it informative Lucas!

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Travel Continuously

North Korea Travel Guide: How to Visit Pyongyang as a Tourist

North Korea is one of the most secretive and mysterious countries in the world, yet before Covid-19 struck, the nation had also begun opening its arms to tourism.

This is how Jordan Simons visited Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, for 3 days as a tourist in December 2019.

UPDATE: This information was correct as of December 2019, however, because of the recent Covid-19 pandemic, the situation may now be different. Please scroll to the bottom of the article for the latest information.

Table of Contents

What do you need to know about North Korea before you go?

Here’s everything you need to know about travelling to North Korea:

How to book a tour to North Korea

Tourism in North Korea is unlike anywhere else on the planet, so it’s important to know what to expect before you go. Once you’ve crossed the border, your every move will be monitored and controlled by your local guides, and everything they allow you to do has been pre-authorised by the North Korean government. You’ll be on a strict itinerary, which means you can only go where they allow you to go. We can’t stress this enough, but if you step out of line, then you could get into some serious trouble.

Still interested? Ok then.. this is how you can arrange a trip to North Korea.

Read more: 9 Facts About North Korea (That You Haven’t Heard Before)

The first thing you need to know is that you are required to go through a specialised tour company. There are a few of them out there and they have varying itineraries and price points. The main operators currently are Koryo Tours, Lupine Travel and Young Pioneer Tours.

I went through Young Pioneer Tours , as it was recommended by a couple of friends of mine that had been previously. They have various options depending on your budget and time. Since I was short on time and was doing this as an add-on to my Great Wall of China Marathon trip, I opted for their 3-day Ultra Budget tour, which at the time of writing cost 495 Euros.

How to get a North Korea visa : The Chinese Visa Comes First

The tour I booked was overland via a train from China, which meant that I needed to get a multiple or double-entry China visa. You could either meet the group in Beijing or the weird border town of Dandong. I opted for the latter and covered the eery experience in the below YouTube video.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get the correct Chinese visa. We needed to get a double entry (to enable us to get the train back across the border) but something went wrong and they only gave me a single-entry China visa. I was told after that this is a common problem and it’s a much better idea to get a visa agent to handle it than put in the application yourself.

I had to pay an extra 400 euros to fly out of Pyongyang back to Beijing instead, in order to get the transit visa on arrival when landing back in China. It was my fault really; they advised me to get the Chinese visa through an agent and I ignored that advice to save costs! I went directly to the Chinese visa office in Bangkok, which apparently rarely gives out multiple entry visas – especially relating to travel to North Korea. You live, you learn!

There are also tours that do not require a double-entry China visa, as they fly in and out of Pyongyang. This allows you to qualify for a Chinese transit visa on the way there and back. This might be worth it for you depending on the length of the trip, the itinerary and the overall costs.

on the train into north korea from china

The North Korea Visa Guide

Ok so that’s the Chinese visa side of the process explained, but how about getting the North Korean visa? For me, Young Pioneer Tours arranged everything for my North Korea visa. All I had to do was fill out some forms and send a copy of my passport over email. This is standard practice for tour companies and they handle every part of the process (and that’s included in the cost of the tour).

So roughly a month before the trip, I sent a photocopy of my passport and filled out a form and that was genuinely it. Easy!

All I had to do next was meet them at the meeting point in Dandong China and they had the North Korea visa card ready for me. Compared to securing a Chinese visa, getting a North Korean visa is simple!

visit north korea from china

How can US Citizens get a North Korean visa?

Currently, most nationalities from around the world are able to get a North Korean visa, with the exception of people travelling on a US passport.

On 1st September 2017, the US enacted a travel ban on all US citizens travelling to NK. This was in response to the death of Otto Warmbier , who had fallen into a coma while imprisoned in North Korea and died soon after being returned back to his home country.

Because of this, all tour companies decided not to accept anyone travelling on a US passport.

Now I won’t beat around the bush. There are always inherent dangers when travelling to North Korea. It’s still not exactly clear what happened with Otto Warmbier, and I don’t feel I’m qualified to talk about it really, but just understand that this is a reality. It’s something that happened and it’s well worth being aware of before you think about visiting the country. DO YOUR RESEARCH. Most importantly: FOLLOW THE RULES when you’re in North Korea (something Otto Warmbier failed to do).

However, if you are a US citizen with dual citizenship and you have a second passport, you could travel at your own risk.

visit north korea from china

How long should you visit North Korea?

I went for 3 days but if I’m honest, I wish I had gone longer. The only reason I didn’t book a longer tour is that I was planning to be on another trip straight after and so had a conflict of dates. Unfortunately, that other trip didn’t work out, but that’s a story for another day!

I only had limited time, so I did the 3-day ultra-budget tour option. It meant that I got to see the limited highlights of Pyongyang but if I were you, I would do at least a week inside the country to really gain an insight into what North Korea has to offer – especially as you venture outside the capital on longer tours.

The longer tours enable you to see more of the North Korean countryside, visit the DMZ with South Korea and in many cases, interact with the local people in a more intimate way.

The Mansu Hill Grand Monument, Pyongyang

What can you take into North Korea?

If you are travelling to North Korea there are a few things you shouldn’t take with you, and please look up the list in full before going. Examples are religious texts, North Korean history books, guide books, any pornographic material and cameras with GPS ability (including drones).

As it happens, I was told you can get away with the GPS function on cameras (as most of our smartphones have it anyway). Just don’t be too obvious about it and do this at your own risk. Most people chose to leave their laptops and drones in their hostels or hotels back in China.

You are free to take photos and videos of most things – and are actively encouraged by the tour guides (after all, they only take you to where they want you to go!) – with the exception of military sites, military personnel and construction sites. This is also the case in many other countries, however, they are particularly strict on this matter and will go through your camera to delete photos and videos if you are caught.

Is North Korea safe to visit?

In terms of your safety within the country, I don’t believe I’ve ever been somewhere that has felt this safe – hear me out.

The main reason I’m saying that is that there is almost zero crime on a personal level. Theft, for example, is very unlikely to happen to a foreigner. I had no problem leaving my camera and lens in one carriage of the train while I was in the next.

While I completely understand that this is because the thief would receive the harshest of punishments and likely be treated in a very inhumane manner, I believe it’s a fact that is worth pointing out.

The Pyongyang Metro Underground at Rush Hour

You’re also on a tour all the time with two North Korean guides, so there’s very little chance that anyone would target your tour group for any crime.

This obviously does not endorse your safety on a political level, as there is always a chance that North Korea could suddenly change its policy and hold you as a prisoner or worse. This is a reality and is definitely something that should be considered.

visit north korea from china

To make this clear, this article is just about how I visited North Korea as a tourist and my own personal experience. I am not saying that you SHOULD go there and obviously there are real risks involved.

For example, the GOV UK website advises against ALL but essential travel to North Korea. I’m not exactly sure what essential travel would be, but that’s the official advice.

The main thing I would say as well is that if you do go, just follow the advice of your guides. Here are some simple rules to follow:

  • Do not make childish jokes about their idealogy or their leaders
  • Do not wander away from the group and ignore the guidance you’ve been given.
  • Follow the laws of their country while you’re there, the same as you would in any other country.

Can you still travel to North Korea after the Covid-19 outbreak?

North Korea was one of the first countries to close its borders after the Coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China. They did this in February 2020, roughly a month before other countries around the world closed their own.

Experts have said that they made this move because they could not handle an outbreak within their own country due to insufficient hospitals and medical care. As it stands, they have also banned all foreign visitors from coming into the country in the near future.

While this may change over time, we do not expect the borders to be open to foreign visitors any time soon. I would suggest finding the latest news on North Korean travel on the Young Pioneer blog or Facebook page – https://www.youngpioneertours.com/blogs/

Check back in the future if you’re interested in learning more and please ask any questions you have about travelling to North Korea in the comments below.

As always, thanks for reading.

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My name is Jordan Simons and over the past few years I've learned how to travel the world continuously. Now I want to show you how to do the same.

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The Independent

Satellite images show how North Korea has transformed its border with China

S ince the start of the Covid pandemic, North Korea has systematically sealed the country’s borders using “expanded fences, guard posts, strict enforcement, and new rules, including a standing order for border guards to shoot on sight”, a new report from Human Rights Watch has revealed.

Analysis of the satellite images of hundreds of square kilometres of North Korea’s northern border shows how key trade and crossing points were fortified after the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic began. The satellite images also show the level of security infrastructure before and after 2020 on the border and “the scale, efforts, and resources that the North Korean government has invested in fortifying the border through new fencing, infrastructure, and its increased deployment of security personnel”.

The HRW report titled, “A Sense of Terror, Stronger than a Bullet: The Closing of North Korea 2018–2023” was released on 7 March and shows how between 2017 and 2023, the already isolated country effectively closed off North Korea from the rest of the world and “stopped almost all cross-border movement of people, formal and informal commercial trade, and humanitarian aid”.

In its analysis of the satellite images, HRW concluded that between 2020 and 2023 North Korea built a total 482 kilometres of new fencing in the areas and enhanced another 260 kilometres of primary fencing that had existed before.

Satellite images from April 2023 showed some fencing still under construction, it added.

Captured between 2019 and 2023 and spanning approximately a quarter of its northern border, the images also reveal the construction of new guard posts and the establishment of buffer zones.

The report adds: “Ostensibly to address the Covid-19 pandemic, North Korean authorities instituted strict border and regional lockdowns, issued a shoot-on-sight order to guards—still in effect in January 2024—for any person or wild animal approaching the northern border, fortified or built new border fences and security facilities”. It states that the country “imposed strict limitations on foreign trade and domestic travel and distribution of food and essential products… and implemented excessive and abusive restrictions on freedom of movement and quarantine measures.”

Human Rights Watch identified 6,820 border security installations along the 321 kilometres of the border that were analysed, and that encompassed guard posts, watchtowers, and garrisons.

“The overall number of border security facilities in the areas analysed increased 20-fold since 2019. There was a massive increase in the number of guard posts, which mushroomed from 38 before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, to 6,506,” the report noted.

The report highlighted the devastating consequences for the North Korean people of the government’s worsening isolation from 2019 until late 2023.

One of the cities that the report covered was Hyesan, which serves as the main gateway to and from the Mount Paektu and Samjiyon tourist areas. HRW analysis showed the area has seen significant redevelopment efforts since Kim Jong-un designated their transformation a national focus in 2013.

Interviews with over 30 North Koreans who have ties to Hyesan city and fled the country post-2011 reveal a common sentiment: it’s rare to find a family in Hyesan without at least one member who has defected to South Korea.

P Su Ryun, a former merchant in her forties with a wide network within Hyesan said: “There are no honest people left in Hyesan city.” She explained that everyone she knew there had at some point engaged in activities deemed illegal by North Korean authorities: unauthorised trade, consuming forbidden information or media, communicating with people outside North Korea, and watching South Korean films and TV shows.

L Young Mi, a former herbal medicine trader in her 30s from Ryanggang province who now lives overseas, said a relative in North Korea told her in November 2022 that nobody could get close to the border: “My [relative] said there were no words to describe how hard life was. There was no [informal] trade with China , not even to get some rice or a bag of wheat. If [authorities] heard of a soldier allowing that, that person would just disappear ... Soldiers are very scared… My [relative] said people in [her area] said there is not even an ant crossing the border.”

The report also states that in August 2020, the authorities issued a shoot-on-sight order on the northern border and set up a “buffer zone” and there was a nighttime curfew imposed from 8pm to 5am from April to September that year and from 6pm to 7am from October to March.

“Media and an activist with contacts inside the country said this curfew remained in place in many areas long after Kim Jong-un’s declaration of ‘victory’ over Covid-19 in August 2022, and the buffer zone was still in place in the northern border area as of January 2024.”

HRW notes that “very few North Koreans have been able to escape the country since 2020”. In 2021, 2022, and 2023, only 63, 67, and 196 North Korean escapees arrived in South Korea — a significant decrease from the 229 arrivals in 2020, the 1,047 arrivals in 2019, and the 2,706 in 2011.

The Independent is the world’s most free-thinking news brand, providing global news, commentary and analysis for the independently-minded. We have grown a huge, global readership of independently minded individuals, who value our trusted voice and commitment to positive change. Our mission, making change happen, has never been as important as it is today.

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visit north korea from china

Inside North Korea's Forced-Labor Program

Workers sent from the country to Chinese factories describe enduring beatings and sexual abuse, having their wages taken by the state, and being told that if they try to escape they will be “killed without a trace.”

visit north korea from china

Illustration by Cleon Peterson

In February of last year , Donggang Jinhui Foodstuff, a seafood-processing company in Dandong, China, threw a party. It had been a successful year: a new plant had opened, and the company had doubled the amount of squid that it exported to the United States. The party, according to videos posted on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, featured singers, instrumentalists, dancers, fireworks, and strobe lights. One aspect of the company’s success seems to have been its use of North Korean workers, who are sent by their government to work in Chinese factories, in conditions of captivity, to earn money for the state. A seafood trader who does business with Jinhui recently estimated that it employed between fifty and seventy North Koreans. Videos posted by a company representative show machines labelled in Korean, and workers with North Korean accents explaining how to clean squid. At the party, the company played songs that are popular in Pyongyang, including “People Bring Glory to Our Party” (written by North Korea’s 1989 poet laureate) and “We Will Go to Mt. Paektu” (a reference to the widely mythologized birthplace of Kim Jong Il). Performers wore North Korean colors, and the country’s flag billowed behind them; in the audience, dozens of workers held miniature flags.

Drone footage played at the event showed off Jinhui’s twenty-one-acre, fenced-in compound, which has processing and cold-storage facilities and what appears to be a seven-floor dormitory for workers. The company touted a wide array of Western certifications from organizations that claim to check workplaces for labor violations, including the use of North Korean workers. When videos of the party were posted online, a commenter—presumably befuddled, because using these workers violates U.N. sanctions—asked, “Aren’t you prohibited from filming this?”

Like Jinhui, many companies in China rely on a vast program of forced labor from North Korea. (Jinhui did not respond to requests for comment.) The program is run by various entities in the North Korean government, including a secretive agency called Room 39, which oversees activities such as money laundering and cyberattacks, and which funds the country’s nuclear- and ballistic-missile programs. (The agency is so named, according to some defectors, because it is based in the ninth room on the third floor of the Korean Workers’ Party headquarters.) Such labor transfers are not new. In 2012, North Korea sent some forty thousand workers to China. A portion of their salaries was taken by the state, providing a vital source of foreign currency for Party officials: at the time, a Seoul-based think tank estimated that the country made as much as $2.3 billion a year through the program. Since then, North Koreans have been sent to Russia, Poland, Qatar, Uruguay, and Mali.

This piece was published in collaboration with the Outlaw Ocean Project .

In 2017, after North Korea tested a series of nuclear and ballistic weapons, the United Nations imposed sanctions that prohibit foreign companies from using North Korean workers. The U.S. passed a law that established a “rebuttable presumption” categorizing work by North Koreans as forced labor unless proven otherwise, and levying fines on companies that import goods tied to these workers. China is supposed to enforce the sanctions in a similar manner. Nevertheless, according to State Department estimates, there are currently as many as a hundred thousand North Koreans working in the country. Many work at construction companies, textile factories, and software firms. Some also process seafood. In 2022, according to Chinese officials running pandemic quarantines, there were some eighty thousand North Koreans just in Dandong, a hub of the seafood industry.

Last year, I set out with a team of researchers to document this phenomenon. We reviewed leaked government documents, promotional materials, satellite imagery, online forums, and local news reports. We watched hundreds of cell-phone videos published on social-media sites. In some, the presence of North Koreans was explicit. Others were examined by experts to detect North Korean accents, language usage, and other cultural markers. Reporting in China is tightly restricted for Western reporters. But we hired Chinese investigators to visit factories and record footage of production lines. I also secretly sent interview questions, through another group of investigators and their contacts, to two dozen North Koreans—twenty workers and four managers—who had recently spent time in Chinese factories. Their anonymous responses were transcribed and sent back to me.

The workers, all of whom are women, described conditions of confinement and violence at the plants. Workers are held in compounds, sometimes behind barbed wire, under the watch of security agents. Many work gruelling shifts and get at most one day off a month. Several described being beaten by the managers sent by North Korea to watch them. “It was like prison for me,” one woman said. “At first, I almost vomited at how bad it was, and, just when I got used to it, the supervisors would tell us to shut up, and curse if we talked.” Many described enduring sexual assault at the hands of their managers. “They would say I’m fuckable and then suddenly grab my body and grope my breasts and put their dirty mouth on mine and be disgusting,” a woman who did product transport at a plant in the city of Dalian said. Another, who worked at Jinhui, said, “The worst and saddest moment was when I was forced to have sexual relations when we were brought to a party with alcohol.” The workers described being kept at the factories against their will, and being threatened with severe punishment if they tried to escape. A woman who was at a factory called Dalian Haiqing Food for more than four years said, “It’s often emphasized that, if you are caught running away, you will be killed without a trace.”

In all, I identified fifteen seafood-processing plants that together seem to have used more than a thousand North Korean workers since 2017. China officially denies that North Korean laborers are in the country. But their presence is an open secret. “They are easy to distinguish,” a Dandong native wrote in a comment on Bilibili, a video-sharing site. “They all wear uniform clothes, have a leader, and follow orders.” Often, footage of the workers ends up online. In a video from a plant called Dandong Yuanyi Refined Seafoods, a dozen women perform a synchronized dance in front of a mural commemorating Youth Day, a North Korean holiday. The video features a North Korean flag emoji and the caption “Beautiful little women from North Korea in Donggang’s cold-storage facility.” (The company did not respond to requests for comment.) Remco Breuker, a North Korea specialist at Leiden University, in the Netherlands, told me, “Hundreds of thousands of North Korean workers have for decades slaved away in China and elsewhere, enriching their leader and his party while facing unconscionable abuse.”

A photo of an office that had a wooden desk with two miniature flags, one Chinese and one North Korean. The walls around the desk are bare except for two portraits of the past North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.

In late 2023, an investigator hired by my team visited a Chinese plant called Donggang Xinxin Foodstuff. He found hundreds of North Korean women working under a red banner that read, in Korean, “Let’s carry out the resolution of the 8th Congress of the Workers’ Party.” (The company did not respond to requests for comment.) Soon afterward, the investigator visited a nearby plant called Donggang Haimeng Foodstuff, and found a North Korean manager sitting at a wooden desk with two miniature flags, one Chinese and one North Korean. The walls around the desk were mostly bare except for two portraits of the past North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. The manager took our investigator to the workers’ cafeteria to eat a North Korean cold-noodle dish called naengmyeon , and then gave him a tour of the processing floor. Several hundred North Korean women dressed in red uniforms, plastic aprons, and white rubber boots stood shoulder to shoulder at long metal tables under harsh lights, hunched over plastic baskets of seafood, slicing and sorting products by hand. “They work hard,” the manager said. The factory has exported thousands of tons of fish to companies that supply major U.S. retailers, including Walmart and ShopRite. (A spokesperson for Donggang Haimeng said that it does not hire North Korean workers.)

At times, China aggressively conceals the existence of the program. Alexander Dukalskis, a political-science professor at University College Dublin, said that workers have a hard time making their conditions known. “They’re in a country where they may not speak the language, are under surveillance, usually living collectively, and have no experience in contacting journalists,” he said. In late November, after my team’s investigators visited several plants, authorities distributed pamphlets on the country’s anti-espionage laws. Local officials announced that people who try “to contact North Korean workers, or to approach the workplaces of North Korean workers, will be treated as engaging in espionage activities that endanger national security, and will be punished severely.” They also warned that people who were found to be working in connection with foreign media outlets would face consequences under the Anti-Espionage Act.

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Dandong, a city of more than two million people , sits on the Yalu River, just over the border from North Korea. The Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge links Dandong to the North Korean city of Sinuiju. A second bridge, bombed during the Korean War, still extends partway across the river, and serves as a platform from which Chinese residents can view the North Koreans living six hundred yards away. The Friendship Bridge is one of the Hermit Kingdom’s few gateways to the world. Some trade with North Korea is allowed under U.N. sanctions, and nearly seventy per cent of the goods exchanged between that country and China travel across this bridge. At least one department store in Dandong keeps a list of products preferred by North Korean customers. Shops sell North Korean ginseng, beer, and “7.27” cigarettes, named for the date on which the armistice ending the Korean War was signed. The city is home to a museum about the conflict, officially called the Memorial Hall of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. On boat tours, Chinese tourists purchase bags of biscuits to toss to children on the North Korean side of the river.

Government officials carefully select workers to send to China, screening them for their political loyalties to reduce the risk of defections. To qualify, a person must generally have a job at a North Korean company and a positive evaluation from a local Party official. “These checks start at the neighborhood,” Breuker said. Candidates who have family in China, or a relative who has already defected, can be disqualified. For some positions, applicants under twenty-seven years of age who are unmarried must have living parents, who can be punished if they try to defect, according to a report from the South Korean government; applicants over twenty-seven must be married. North Korean authorities even select for height: the country’s population is chronically malnourished, and the state prefers candidates who are taller than five feet one, to avoid the official embarrassment of being represented abroad by short people. Once selected, applicants go through pre-departure training, which can last a year and often includes government-run classes covering everything from Chinese customs and etiquette to “enemy operations” and the activities of other countries’ intelligence agencies. (The North Korean government did not respond to requests for comment.)

The governments of both countries coördinate to place workers, most of whom are women, with seafood companies. The logistics are often handled by local Chinese recruitment agencies, and advertisements can be found online. A video posted on Douyin this past September announced the availability of twenty-five hundred North Koreans, and a commenter asked if they could be sent to seafood factories. A post on a forum advertised five thousand workers; a commenter asked if any spoke Mandarin, and the poster replied, “There is a team leader, management, and an interpreter.” A company called Jinuo Human Resources posted, “I am a human-resources company coöperating with the embassy, and currently have a large number of regular North Korean workers.” Several people expressed interest. (The company did not respond to requests for comment.)

Jobs in China are coveted in North Korea, because they often come with contracts promising salaries of around two hundred and seventy dollars a month. (Similar work in North Korea pays just three dollars a month.) But the jobs come with hidden costs. Workers usually sign two- or three-year contracts. When they arrive in China, managers confiscate their passports. Inside the factories, North Korean workers wear different uniforms than Chinese workers. “Without this, we couldn’t tell if one disappeared,” a manager said. Shifts run as long as sixteen hours. If workers attempt to escape, or complain to people outside the plants, their families at home can face reprisals. One seafood worker described how managers cursed at her and flicked cigarette butts. “I felt bad, and I wanted to fight them, but I had to endure,” she said. “That was when I was sad.”

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Workers get few, if any, holidays or sick days. At seafood plants, the women sleep in bunk beds in locked dormitories, sometimes thirty to a room. One worker, who spent four years processing clams in Dandong, estimated that more than sixty per cent of her co-workers suffered from depression. “We regretted coming to China but couldn’t go back empty-handed,” she said. Workers are forbidden to tune in to local TV or radio. They are sometimes allowed to leave factory grounds—say, to go shopping—but generally in groups of no more than three, and accompanied by a minder. Mail is scrutinized by North Korean security agents who also “surveil the daily life and report back with official reports,” one manager said. Sometimes the women are allowed to socialize. In a video titled “North Korean beauties working in China play volleyball,” posted in 2022, women in blue-and-white uniforms exercise on the grounds of the Dandong Omeca Food seafood plant. (The company that owns the plant did not respond to requests for comment.) A commenter wrote, “The joy of poverty. That’s just how it is.”

Factories typically give the women’s money to their managers, who take cuts for themselves and the government, and hold on to the rest until the workers’ terms in China end. Kim Jieun, a North Korean defector who now works for Radio Free Asia, said that companies tell workers their money is safer this way, because it could be stolen in the dormitories. But, in the end, workers often see less than ten per cent of their promised salary. One contract that I reviewed stipulated that around forty dollars would be deducted each month by the state to pay for food. More is sometimes deducted for electricity, housing, heat, water, insurance, and “loyalty” payments to the state. Managers also hold on to wages to discourage defections. The women have been warned, Kim added, that if they try to defect “they will be immediately caught by Chinese CCTV cameras installed everywhere.” This past October, Chinese authorities repatriated around six hundred North Korean defectors. “China does not recognize North Korean defectors as refugees,” Edward Howell, who teaches politics at Oxford University, told me. “If they are caught by Chinese authorities, they will be forcibly returned to the D.P.R.K., where they face harsh punishment in labor camps.”

Chinese companies have significant incentives to use North Korean workers. They’re typically paid only a quarter of what local employees earn. And they are generally excluded from mandatory social-welfare programs (regarding retirement, medical treatment, work-related injury, and maternity), which further reduces costs. In 2017, Dandong’s Commerce Bureau announced a plan to create a cluster of garment factories that would use North Korean labor. The bureau’s Web site noted that all such workers undergo political screenings to make sure they are “rooted, red, and upright.” “The discipline among the workers is extremely strong,” it added. “There are no instances of absenteeism or insubordination toward leadership, and there are no occurrences of feigning illness or delaying work.” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to questions for this piece, but last year the Chinese Ambassador to the U.N. wrote that China has abided by sanctions even though it has sustained “great losses” as a result. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently said that China and North Korea have “enjoyed long-standing friendly ties,” adding, “The United States needs to draw lessons, correct course, step up to its responsibility, stop heightening the pressure and sanctions, stop military deterrence, and take effective steps to resume meaningful dialogue.”

North Koreans face difficult circumstances across industries. In January of this year, more than two thousand workers rioted in Jilin Province, breaking sewing machines and kitchen utensils, when they learned that their wages would be withheld. Many North Koreans—perhaps thousands—work in Russian logging, in brutal winter weather without proper clothing. Hundreds have been found working in the Russian construction industry; some lived in shipping containers or in the basements of buildings under construction, because better accommodations were not provided. One recounted working shifts that lasted from 7:30 A . M . to 3 A . M . In preparation for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, held in Russia and Qatar, thousands of North Koreans were sent to build stadiums and luxury apartments. A subcontractor who worked alongside the North Koreans in Russia told the Guardian that they lived in cramped spaces, with as many as eight people packed into a trailer, in an atmosphere of fear and abuse like “prisoners of war.”

Although it’s illegal in the U.S. to import goods made with North Korean labor, the law can be difficult to enforce. Some eighty per cent of seafood consumed in America, for example, is imported, and much of it comes from China through opaque supply chains. To trace the importation of seafood from factories that appear to be using North Korean labor, my team reviewed trade data, shipping contracts, and the codes that are stamped on seafood packages to monitor food safety. We found that, since 2017, ten of these plants have together shipped more than a hundred and twenty thousand tons of seafood to more than seventy American importers, which supplied grocery stores including Walmart, Giant, ShopRite, and the online grocer Weee! The seafood from these importers also ended up at major restaurant chains, like McDonald’s, and with Sysco, the largest food distributor in the world, which supplies almost half a million restaurants, as well as the cafeterias on American military bases, in public schools, and for the U.S. Congress. (Walmart, Weee!, and McDonald’s did not respond to requests for comment. Giant’s parent company, Ahold Delhaize, and ShopRite’s parent company, Wakefern, said their suppliers claimed that they currently do not source from the Chinese plant in question, and added that audit reports showed no evidence of forced labor.)

Two of the plants that investigators from my team visited—Dandong Galicia Seafood and Dalian Haiqing Food—had an estimated fifty to seventy North Korean workers apiece. One worker who has been employed at Galicia said that the managers are “so stingy with money that they don’t allow us to get proper medical treatment even when we are sick.” Galicia and Haiqing have shipped roughly a hundred thousand tons of seafood to American importers since 2017, and Haiqing also shipped to an importer that supplies the cafeterias of the European Parliament. (Dalian Haiqing Food said that it “does not employ overseas North Korean workers.” Dandong Galicia Seafood did not respond to requests for comment. One of the U.S. importers tied to Haiqing, Trident Seafoods, said that audits “found no evidence or even suspicion” of North Korean labor at the plant. Several companies, including Trident, High Liner, and Sysco, said that they would sever ties with the plant while they conducted their own investigations. A spokesperson for the European Parliament said that its food contractor did not supply seafood from the plant.) Breuker, from Leiden University, told me that American customers quietly benefit from this arrangement. “This labor-transfer system is for North Korea and China as economically successful as it is morally reprehensible,” he said. “It’s also a boon for the West because of the cheap goods we get as a result.”

North Korea doesn’t just export seafood workers; it also exports fish—another means by which the government secures foreign currency. Importing North Korean seafood is forbidden by U.N. sanctions, but it also tends to be inexpensive, which encourages companies to skirt the rules. Sometimes Chinese fishing companies pay the North Korean government for illegal licenses to fish in North Korea’s waters. Sometimes they buy fish from other boats at sea: a letter from a North Korean, leaked in 2022, proposed selling ten thousand tons of squid to a Chinese company in return for more than eighteen million dollars and five hundred tons of diesel fuel. Sometimes the seafood is trucked over the border. This trade is poorly hidden. In October, a Chinese man who said his last name was Cui posted a video on Douyin advertising crabs from North Korea. When someone commented, “The goods can’t be shipped,” Cui responded with laughing emojis. In other videos, he explained that he operated a processing plant in North Korea, and gave information on the timing of shipments that he planned to send across the border. When I contacted Cui, he said that he had stopped importing North Korean seafood in 2016 (though the videos were actually from last year), and added, “It’s none of your business, and I don’t care who you are.” My team found that seafood from North Korea was imported by several American distributors, including HF Foods, which supplies more than fifteen thousand Asian restaurants in the U.S. (HF Foods did not respond to requests for comment.)

Chinese companies often claim that they are in compliance with labor laws because they have passed “social audits,” which are conducted by firms that inspect worksites for abuses. But half the Chinese plants that we found using North Korean workers have certifications from the Marine Stewardship Council, which is based in the U.K. and sets standards for granting sustainability certifications, but only to companies that have also passed social audits or other labor assessments. (Jackie Marks, an M.S.C. spokesperson, told me that these social audits are conducted by a third party, and that “We make no claims about setting standards on labor.”) Last year, one of my team’s investigators visited a seafood-processing plant in northeastern China called Dandong Taifeng Foodstuff. The company has been designated a “national brand,” a status reserved for the country’s most successful companies, and supplies thousands of tons of seafood to grocery stores in the U.S. and elsewhere. At the plant, our investigator was given a tour by a North Korean manager. On the factory floor, which was lit by bright fluorescent bulbs, more than a hundred and fifty North Korean women, most of them under thirty-five years old, wore head-to-toe white protective clothing, plastic aprons, white rubber boots, and red gloves that went up to their elbows. They stood with their heads down, moving red, yellow, and blue plastic bins of seafood. Water puddled at their feet. “Quick, quick,” one woman said to the other members of her small group. (Taifeng did not respond to requests for comment.) Just weeks after that visit, the plant was recertified by the Marine Stewardship Council.

Marcus Noland, who works at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said, of social audits within the seafood industry, “The basic stance appears to be ‘See no evil.’ ” Skepticism of such audits is growing. In 2021, the U.S. State Department said that social audits in China are generally inadequate for identifying forced labor, in part because auditors rely on government translators and rarely speak directly to workers. Auditors can be reluctant to anger the companies that have hired them, and workers face reprisals for reporting abuses. This past November, U.S. Customs and Border Protection advised American companies that a credible assessment would require an “unannounced independent, third-party audit” and “interviews completed in native language.” Liana Foxvog, who works at a nonprofit called the Worker Rights Consortium, argues that assessments should involve other checks too, including off-site worker interviews. But she noted that most audits in China fall short even of C.B.P.’s standards.

Joshua Stanton, an attorney based in Washington, D.C., who helped draft the American law that banned goods produced with North Korean labor, argues that the government is not doing enough to enforce it. “The U.S. government will need to put more pressure on American companies, and those companies need to be more diligent about their suppliers and their supply chains, or face stricter sanctions,” he said. Chris Smith, a Republican congressman from New Jersey and a specialist on China, noted that social audits “create a Potemkin village.” He added, “The consequence is that millions of dollars, even federal dollars, are going to Chinese plants using North Korean workers, and that money then goes right into the hands of Kim Jong Un’s regime, which uses the money to arm our adversaries and repress its own people.”

Late last year , when I set out to contact North Koreans who had been sent to China, I ran into significant obstacles. Western journalists are barred from entering North Korea, and citizens of the country are strictly prohibited from talking freely to reporters. I hired a team of investigators in South Korea who employ contacts in North Korea to get information out of the country for local and Western news outlets—for example, about food shortages, power outages, or the rise of anti-government graffiti. The investigators compiled a list of two dozen North Koreans who had been dispatched to a half-dozen different Chinese factories, most of whom had since returned home. The investigators’ contacts then met with these workers in secret, one-on-one, so that the workers wouldn’t know one another’s identity. The meetings usually occurred in open fields, or on the street, where it’s harder for security agents to conduct surveillance.

The workers were told that their responses would be shared publicly by an American journalism outlet. They faced considerable risk speaking out; experts told me that, if they were caught, they could be executed, and their families put in prison camps. But they agreed to talk because they believe that it is important for the rest of the world to know what happens to workers who are sent to China. The North Korean contacts transcribed their answers by hand, and then took photos of the completed questionnaires and sent them, using encrypted phones, to the investigators, who sent them to me. North Koreans who are still in China were interviewed in a similar fashion. Because of these layers of protection, it is, of course, impossible to fully verify the content of the interviews. But the responses were reviewed by experts to make sure that they are consistent with what is broadly known about the work-transfer program, and in line with interviews given by North Korean defectors. (Recently, the investigators checked in on the interviewers and interviewees, and everyone was safe.)

Transcribed interviews with North Korean workers. Portions have been blurred to protect sources.

“At first, I almost vomited at how bad it was, and, just when I got used to it, the supervisors would tell us to shut up, and curse if we talked. ”
“They called me in as if something happened in the room, and then coerced me into sex. They threatened me that, if I don’t comply, then they will send me back, or they will take out money from my living expenses. ”
“Earning money was good, but I kept thinking about the sexual assault and it was driving me crazy. ”
“They would say I’m fuckable and then suddenly grab my body and grope my breasts and put their dirty mouth on mine and be disgusting. ”
“Sixty to seventy per cent are depressed. We regretted coming to China but couldn’t go back empty-handed. ”

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In their answers, the workers described crushing loneliness. The work was arduous, the factories smelled, and violence was common. “They kicked us and treated us as subhuman,” the worker who processed clams in Dandong said. Asked if they could recount any happy moments, most said that there had been none. A few said that they felt relieved when they returned home and got some of their pay. “I was happy when the money wasn’t all taken out,” the woman who did product transport in Dalian said. One woman said that her experience at a Chinese plant made her feel like she “wanted to die.” Another said that she often felt tired and upset while she was working, but kept those thoughts to herself to avoid reprisals. “It was lonely,” she said. “I hated the military-like communal life.”

The most striking pattern was the women’s description of sexual abuse. Of twenty workers, seventeen said that they had been sexually assaulted by their North Korean managers. They described a range of tactics used to coerce them into having sex. Some managers pretended to wipe something from their uniforms, only to grope them. Some called them into their offices as if there were an emergency, then demanded sex. Others asked them to serve alcohol at a weekend party, then assaulted them there. “When they drank, they touched my body everywhere like playing with toys,” a woman said. The woman who did product transport in Dalian said, “When they suddenly put their mouths to mine, I wanted to throw up.” If the women didn’t comply, the managers could become violent. The worker who was at Haiqing for more than four years said, of her manager, “When he doesn’t get his way sexually, he gets angry and kicks me. . . . He calls me a ‘fucking bitch.’ ” Three of the women said that their managers had forced workers into prostitution. “Whenever they can, they flirt with us to the point of nausea and force us to have sex for money, and it’s even worse if you’re pretty,” another worker at Haiqing said. The worker from Jinhui noted, “Even when there was no work during the pandemic, the state demanded foreign-currency funds out of loyalty, so managers forced workers to sell their bodies.” The worker who spent more than four years at Haiqing said, of the managers, “They forced virgin workers into prostitution, claiming that they had to meet state-set quotas.”

The pandemic made life more difficult for many of the women. When China closed its borders, some found themselves trapped far from home. Often, their workplaces shut down, and they lost their incomes. North Korean workers sometimes pay bribes to government officials to secure posts in China, and, during the pandemic, many borrowed these funds from loan sharks. The loans, typically between two and three thousand dollars, came with high interest rates. Because of work stoppages in China, North Korean workers were unable to pay back their loans, and loan sharks sent thugs to their relatives’ homes to intimidate them. Some of their families had to sell their houses to settle the debts. In 2023, according to Radio Free Asia, two North Korean women at textile plants killed themselves. The worker who told me that she wanted to die said that such deaths are often kept hidden. “If someone dies from suicide, then the manager is responsible, so they keep it under wraps to keep it from being leaked to other workers or Chinese people,” she said.

This past year, pandemic restrictions were lifted, and the border between China and North Korea reopened. In August, some three hundred North Korean workers boarded ten buses in Dandong to go back home. Police officers lined up around the buses to prevent defections. In photos and a video of the event, some of the women can be seen hurriedly preparing to load large suitcases onto a neon-green bus, then riding away across the Friendship Bridge. In September, another three hundred boarded a passenger train to Sinuiju, and two hundred were repatriated by plane. Workers who return face intense questioning by officials. “They asked about every single thing that happened every day from morning to evening in China, about other workers, supervisors, and agents,” the worker who processed clams in Dandong explained. As 2023 ended, the North Korean government began planning to dispatch its next wave of workers. In the past couple of years, according to reporting by Hyemin Son, a North Korean defector who works for Radio Free Asia, labor brokers have requested that Chinese companies pay a large advance; they were being asked to pay ahead of time, one broker told her, because “Chinese companies cannot operate without North Korean manpower.”

Some North Korean workers have yet to go home. One woman said that she has spent the past several years gutting fish at a processing plant in Dalian. She described working late into the night and getting sores in her mouth from stress and exhaustion. In the questionnaire, I had asked about the worst part of her job, and she said, “When I am forced to have sex.” She also described a sense of imprisonment that felt suffocating. “If you show even the slightest attitude, they will treat you like an insect,” she said. “Living a life where we can’t see the outside world as we please is so difficult that it’s killing us.” ♦

This piece was produced with contributions from Joe Galvin, Maya Martin, Susan Ryan, Jake Conley, Austin Brush, and Daniel Murphy.

More on China’s Seafood Industry

For more about China’s seafood industry, read “ The Crimes Behind the Seafood You Eat ,” an immersive investigation into the human cost of China’s maritime expansion.

Read “ The Uyghurs Forced to Process the World’s Fish ,” an investigation into China’s forced-labor practices.

Watch “ Squid Fleet ,” a film that offers a close look at the gruelling work of squid fishing.

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How to Visit North Korea

January 9, 2014 by Bino 15 Comments

I thought this post is a bit overdue, but better late than never!

To be honest, I was astonished when I received so many questions on how to visit North Korea after writing about the things to do in Pyongyang some months back. I certainly never expected there to be many people interested to visit this notorious place. When I was planning for the trip, many of my friends rejected me outright when I invited them. Are you crazy? – was the most usual response I got. But fortunately, two friends went with me in the end, so I didn’t have to experience the many “pleasures” of the DPRK by my lonesome!

visit north korea from china

Visiting North Korea is not as straightforward as visiting other countries. But let me clear up some myths here – it’s not an overly complicated process. Most of the arranging is actually done by the travel agency so one can just sit back and relax for the most part.

If you have intentions of visiting this mysterious country, here are some things to take note of.

Getting a Visa for North Korea

A visa is required for all nationalities except for Malaysians and Singaporeans. In this sense, North Korea has one of the most restrictive entry requirements in the world. Even the two nationalities that don’t need a visa to enter will not be permitted to enter unless they join a tour that is run by the state-owned tourism bureau.

Most visitors obtain their visas in the form of a tourist card in Beijing. However, if you live in a country that has a North Korean embassy, you may obtain your visa there in the traditional way (i.e. a visa sticker stamped to your passport). Do note that for those issued with tourist cards, your passport will not be stamped when you enter / leave North Korea .

In my case, I opted to get a tourist card in Beijing even though there’s an embassy in Singapore, where I live. Nevertheless, the North Korean authorities still did a background check on me. I received a random call one evening where an embassy staff politely asked me my intentions of going to North Korea as well as the whereabouts of my friends who were joining me for the trip.

Requirements:

  • Passport-sized photo (no more than 6 months old)
  • Passport with minimum 6 months validity
  • Application form (do note that the application form for tourist card differs from the one for visa)

Normally, the travel agency will apply for the visa or tourist card on your behalf. Once the North Korean authorities approve it, you will be contacted by the travel agency to make the trip down to the embassy to have the visa stamped in your passport. If you choose to obtain a tourist card, you will be provided details on picking it up in an agreed location in Beijing.

How to get there?

North Korea is one of the most isolated countries in the world. You definitely can’t visit the North from South Korea! Your best bet would be from China where there are direct flights from major cities such as Beijing and Shenyang. During August to September, there may be occasional charter flights that come direct from places like Singapore or Kuala Lumpur.

Alternatively, it’s also possible to visit North Korea by train from China.

visit north korea from china

While North Korea has its own currency (also called the Won), visitors won’t have to use it. During my visit, Euro was the preferred currency, although it was also possible to use US Dollar or Japanese Yen.

visit north korea from china

If you’re familiar with Korean food, then the food in North Korea will not surprise. It is precisely that, albeit you will notice there’s less meat and more vegetables used. North Korea is also one of the few countries where you won’t find western brands when it comes to food. No Coca-cola here, folks!

How Many Days Should You Spend in North Korea?

A standard tour running the major attractions lasts for around 9 to 10 days. In my case, I wasn’t so much keen on seeing the natural attractions. I was more keen on watching the mind-boggling Arirang Mass Games and experiencing the showcase capital, Pyongyang so 5 days was enough for me. More recently, there have been budget tours offered that lasts for as short as 3 days, inclusive of the Arirang Mass Games and a whirlwind city tour of Pyongyang.

When to Go?

I visited in August, the peak of summer (and the rainy season) which was the worst time to go weather-wise but I chose to go at this time for the Arirang Mass Games which are held only from August to September of most years.

What is There to See in North Korea?

A question that I get asked often. While your guide will make sure you visit a seemingly endless checklist of monuments, memorials and war museums, for me the real attraction in North Korea is getting to see a country living in a system unlike any other. North Korea won’t be able to boast an attraction as grand as Taj Mahal but for those looking for a unique travel experience, this country surely doesn’t disappoint.

visit north korea from china

But I did mention in my previous post that I thought North Korea had the most impressive attraction in the entire Korean Peninsula – the Arirang Mass Games . In fact, I count this as one of the most mind-boggling and grandest shows I’ve seen anywhere in the world. It easily beats what the folks over at Las Vegas conjur up year after year. It’s also reason enough to come to North Korea even during the humid and rainy summer season.

For more info on North Korea — do check out my entries on my most surreal North Korea trip

You may also like.

Flying to North Korea: Air Koryo (Beijing to Pyongyang)

Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below. Alternatively, you can also email me at b i n o (at) iwandered.net. You can follow I Wander on Facebook , Telegram , or Instagram . Also, if you liked this article, please feel free to SHARE or RETWEET

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January 9, 2014 at 7:54 am

Is that Mr. Lim? Pareho tayo ng tour guide, LOL.

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January 12, 2014 at 9:35 pm

This is so cool! I want to go to North Korea too but I think it will cost a LOT of money. How did you go about your budget for 5 days? And how much do you think I need if I want to stay for 1-2 weeks (since required din to always have a guide right?) I want to witness Arirang Mass Games! 😀

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January 12, 2014 at 10:54 pm

Hi Mariane! You can check around the different travel agencies for their prices. Generally the lowest I’ve seen is about EUR 700 – 800 for a 5 day tour while a 10 day tour will cost upwards of EUR 1,300

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January 12, 2014 at 11:53 pm

Interesting! I wish I could go backpacking in DPKR (eek, not possible). But seriously, North Korea is on my bucket list. I’ll go there someday when my travel fund is close to being enough.

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March 9, 2014 at 6:27 am

Hi, I am from Singapore. Why did you opt to get a tourist card in Beijing when you know that you could easily get a visa from the North Korean embassy stationed in Singapore? What are the benefits of doing this way?

March 9, 2014 at 4:24 pm

Kris – I wanted to avoid North Korea stamps in my passport. Just in case other countries might refuse entry because of it

March 11, 2014 at 8:55 pm

Hmmm yes after what you mentioned above, I read some advice that leaving a North Korean stamp on my passport would have me refused entry by certain countries in the future. But some others say it will not affect in any way unless I have a stamp from Israel. If I choose to go to the DPRK embassy in Singapore, it would mean that the visa would be glued onto my passport and get stamped on entry? Or they will issue me a tourist visa separately from my passport?

March 12, 2014 at 10:25 pm

If you get the visa from the embassy in Singapore, it means you will get it glued in your passport and stamped upon entry

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May 14, 2016 at 5:30 pm

Hi. What travel agency did you go to in arranging your trip to North Korea? Is there any in Singapore.? Thanks a lot

visit north korea from china

May 16, 2016 at 9:01 pm

Hi – the travel agency that arranged my journey is no longer operating sadly!

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May 10, 2016 at 9:20 am

Hi, I am from Singapore. Which tour agency did you go with?

May 16, 2016 at 9:02 pm

Hi Phylis, unfortunately the travel agency that arranged my tour no longer operates.

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February 3, 2018 at 7:15 pm

I’m a Canadian living in Dubai. I’m interested in a tour, possibly a ski vacation. Is it possible? How much lead time does one need for planning a trip to NK?

February 3, 2018 at 9:43 pm

Allow for around 3 months lead time to be safe.

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