
The American couple who met on vacation in North Korea
CNN
Ryan Carlson and Shauna Cheng met when they both booked an organized tour to North Korea in 2005 and bonded over a mutual love of travel.
(CNN) — Ryan Carlson was in the middle of a backpacking trip in New Zealand when he got the email: North Korea was opening its borders to American tourists. It was September 2005. Carlson, 25, worked in finance as an independent futures trader in Chicago, a job that afforded him a lot of flexibility for travel. North Korea had been on Carlson's to-visit list for a while, but the notoriously secretive, isolated nation hadn't allowed US tourists to enter since 2002.More Related News