North Korea is reportedly going to welcome its first international tourists since the coronavirus pandemic closed the border in Jan. 2020.
The first group will be a group of Russians on a ski trip in February, according to the Russian state-run Tass news agency.
The four-day tour will include stops in Pyongyang and a ski resort, Reuters reported.
The tour posted by a Russian tour agency this week, underscores deepening cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang, according to the Associated Press.
News of the tourists comes months after a meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
North Korea, already virtually hermetically sealed before Covid, imposed some of the strictest border controls in the world during the pandemic.
“It is a good sign, but I would hesitate to say it necessarily will lead to a broader opening due to the special circumstances for this one trip,” Simon Cockerell, general manager at Beijing-based Koryo Tours, said. His agency is not involved with the tour.
“But given that no tourists have been for four-plus years, any tourism trip can be viewed as a positive step forward.”
The trip was a surprise to Asia observers, who had expected the first post-pandemic tourists to North Korea to come from China.