Boom in North Korean tourism

A runner waves her hand to North Korean locals during the 2014 Pyongyang Marathon, which opened to foreign amateurs for the first time in this April. / Courtesy of Young Pioneer Tours

N. Korea even offers foreigners farm tours to mingle with locals

By Kim Hyo-jin, Nam Yoon-seo

Imagine yourself harvesting crops and vegetables at a farm in North Korea, working alongside the locals, then eating lunch and having some drinks with them afterwards. Not as a farmer, but as a tourist with a legitimate North Korean visa.

For foreigners willing to get their hands dirty in the North, the chance to work on Chilgol farm on the outskirts of Pyongyang will open next year. The tour will primarily be available during the May-June planting and transplanting seasons, and the October-November harvesting season, according to Troy Collings of Young Pioneers Tours, a travel agency that specializes in tours to the isolated country.

"We will be able to bring tourist groups to the local farm to give them an experience of farming in North Korea. We're also working on overnight stays there," Collings of the China-based tour operator told The Korea Times.

Young Pioneer Tours' operators look around Chilgol farm, preparing an itinerary to experience farming which will be launched next year.
/ Courtesy of Young pioneer Tours

Eight years have passed since a South Korean tour program to North Korea's Mount Geumgang stopped in 2008 after a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a soldier. But the North has steadily been opening its tourism sector even as it ratchets up political tensions. The Masik Ski Resort near the eastern port city of Wonsan opened in January 2014, and a pro wrestling event took place in August featuring fighters including Bob Sapp. The farm activity is one of the new travel itineraries to choose from if you're a foreigner looking to travel to North Korea. However, South Koreans are barred from taking part.

Increasing number of tourists

Tourism to North Korea has been growing in recent years. China ― the North's biggest ally ― has sent about 200,000 tourists there annually since 2012. Western tourists account for only a small percentage. But their numbers have steadily increased over the last several years, from 700 in 2004 to 6,000 in 2013, according to recent estimates.

Since 2008, observers argue North Korea has pushed to develop its tourist infrastructure to reach out to tourists from China and elsewhere. In addition to Pyongyang, the cities of Hamheung, Pyeongseong and Hoeryeong also opened to foreign tourism in 2010, 2013 and 2014, respectively.

An image from the Arirang Mass Game, which usually takes place from August to September. The event has been one of big tour packages of North Korea since its beginning in 2002. / Courtesy of Koryo Tours

Now there is more tourist access to North Korea than ever before. Americans and Israelis used to be banned from visiting the country except during the Arirang Mass Games held every year or so. But since 2010, they have been welcomed under the same conditions as other tourists. Pyongyang recently re-opened its domestic flight routes to link up more remote parts of the country previously only accessible by taking a two- or three-day train ride across North Korea's twisting mountains and rivers. The reopened domestic routes include those from Pyongang to Sondok in South Hamgyeong Province; from Pyongyang to Orang in North Hamgyeong Province; and from Pyongyang to Samjiyon, Yanggang Province, all northeastern parts of North Korea.

Tourists stand before statues of former North Korean leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il for a souvenir photo. / Courtesy of Young Pioneer Tours

Growing diversity of tour itineraries

"I think new itineraries definitely affected growth in the number of tourists ― especially places that give tourists more opportunities to interact with locals. New itineraries also appeal to repeat visitors," said Collings of Young Pioneer Tours.

Young Pioneer Tours is one of four or five travel agencies that specialize in North Korea tours, most of which work closely with the Korea International Travel Company (KITC), a state-owned tourism bureau in North Korea.

When tour operators have ideas on a tour item, they first suggest it to the KITC to see if it wins their approval. If they get permission to implement the idea, they can put it in their tour packages and start offering it to tourists. But it sometimes can take years for tour operators to get such permission.

Foreign tourists have beer with a local at the Gyonghung Beer Bar located in Pyongyang. / Courtesy of Young Pioneer Tours

Tour operators say the KITC has become most receptive to ideas centered around sports, or where opportunities are created for tourists to mingle with local North Koreans.

"It is becoming easier and now, very often, KITC people come to us to say tourists can now visit somewhere new that we weren't even aware of, or hadn't considered," Collings said.

"I think it comes with the new focus on tourism. They are keen to suggest or receive suggestions that lead to more visitors."

Surfing in the socialist paradise

With the change in the authorities' attitude, a wide range of itineraries ― especially those that are sports-related ― have opened to tourists, operators say.

In April, for the first time, the Pyongyang Marathon opened to foreign amateur runners, and drew more than 200 visiting participants.

"Pyongyang citizens were definitely cheering and hi-fiving (on the street), and there were kids who ran with us for couple of meters before going back to their parents," said Jen Loong, a Canadian amateur runner who participated the race. After the race, she enjoyed looking around Pyongyang and the Demilitarized Zone.

And now a new golf tournament is under consideration next year at the Mount Geumgang tourist resort on the northern side of the inter-Korea border, according to Dylan Harris, founder of the U.K.-based Lupine Travel Company. Prior to 2008, the course was used by South Korean tourists, but it has remained out of use ever since.

Surfing tours are another development. Since the end of July, they have been running at three resorts ― Songdowon, Lake Sijung and Majon ― along the North's 2,500 kilometer-long eastern coastline.

A poster advertising the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's Amateur Golf Open that was held in July this year. The Lupine Travel has been hosting the golf event since 2011, which is expected to be held at Mt. Geumgang resort next year. / Courtesy of Lupine Travel

"Kim Jong-un has a big interest in tourism and is highlighting the image of openness, which could explain the seemingly flexible attitude towards tourism," Kim Young-hyun, a professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University in Seoul, told The Korea Times.

There is, however, much debate among some tourists over the ethics of travelling to North Korea, which was recently accused of committing "Nazi-like" crimes against humanity in a recent United Nations report. Tourism is an important source of foreign currency for the cash-strapped currency, but supporters argue foreign visitors are helping open up the isolated country.

Arrested developments

There always has been a risk in traveling to North Korea. Fueling the debate is the issue of what appears to be the arbitrary detention of foreign tourists in North Korea. The U.S. government strongly advises against all travels to the North, which is currently holding three of its citizens.

U.S. missionary Kenneth Bae, who was arrested in November 2012, is the longest-held detainee since the Korean War and is currently serving a 15- year sentence with hard labor on charges of attempting to bring down the North Korean government.

"As North Korea open its borders to increased tourism, revenue flows in. But from the perspective of North Korea's securing apparatus more foreigners mean more threats to order and stability," said John Delury, a North Korea expert at Yonsei University. "Kenneth Bae got caught in the contradiction between these two sides of the system."

Another American, Miller Matthew Todd, 24, has been held since April for allegedly ripping up his visa upon entry to the country, according to state media. Jeffrey Fowle, 56, of the U.S., was arrested in June for reportedly leaving a Bible in the bathroom of a site visited by his tour group.

But the vast majority of tourists to North Korea are willing to overcome the perceived risk of arrest and hope to see people's lives behind its iron curtain.

"I had drinks with locals almost every night at a local bar. They surprisingly have very good draft beer there," said Hiroki Watarai, a Japanese-American who travelled to the North in 2011. "It was great to see the human side of the North Koreans and that we are all very similar."

Watarai said during his trip he did not feel "threatened, insulted or nervous at all."

Tour operators go out of their way to make sure their clients are fully briefed beforehand to prevent the risk of arrest.

"If someone decides to break the law then they should be aware that they risk arrest," said Simon Cockerell of Beijing-based Koryo Tours.

"It's hard to break the law accidentally there, as everyone knows in advance what is and isn't OK to do, and many things which are illegal there are not illegal elsewhere, but people visiting there do know this," he added.

Those "illegal only in North Korea" activities include taking pictures of military personnel or doing missionary activities.

"Besides certain rules by which everyone is asked to abide, there was never a time where I felt that I was being controlled," Watarai said.

Those looking to travel to the North can look into these agencies websites: Youngpioneertours.com; Koryogroup.com or Lupinetravel.co.uk.