Operators plan tour to North Korea ahead of late Kim’s birthday

Koryo Tours opens bookings for North Korean border city trips to celebrate Kim Jong Il's birthday post-pandemic.

A tour operator said on Monday (February 3, 2025) it opened bookings for trips to a North Korean border city to celebrate former leader Kim Jong Il’s birthday, offering foreign tourists the first chance to visit since the pandemic.

Tour operators said in January that the North would reopen Rason, a city on the border with China, to foreign tourists, five years after Pyongyang sealed its frontiers in response to Covid-19.

Neither North Korea nor China have commented on the plans.

Koryo Tours said the February tour in Rason would be “the first trip back to North Korea since the borders closed in January 2020”.

“This tour will take you to the must-see sites in Rason, North Korea’s Special Economic Zone. Plus, you will travel to North Korea to celebrate one of the biggest holidays, Kim Jong Il’s Birthday,” the Beijing-based travel agency wrote on its website.

The birthdays of members of the ruling Kim dynasty are typically feted in the North with large scale public celebrations.

The birthday of former ruler Kim Jong Il — father of current leader Kim Jong Un — is marked as Day of the Shining Star on February 16, and typically features large-scale public celebrations, including military parades.