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(NewsNation) — Forget the south of France, Puglia or a Christmas market in Austria. This winter, you can go somewhere really special as North Korea is opening up for tourists again.
According to an announcement by Koryo Tours, which is the only tour operator sanctioned by the hermit kingdom to ferry Americans into the country, “North Korea is OPENING!”
The missive went on to say:
“It’s official. After a long (long) wait since January 2020, North Korea is finally opening its borders to foreign tourism… We have had confirmation from our local partner that tourism to Samjiyon, a city in the far north of the DPRK, close to Mt. Paekdu (Korea’s highest mountain) will officially resume in December 2024.
Samjiyon was announced as it has recently been redeveloped as a tourist destination, we visited in 2018 when filming ‘Michael Palin in North Korea’ and it was already under construction at that time.
Please note that this is not an announcement of a general reopening of Pyongyang and other parts of the country, but we are hopeful that in due course we will be able to bring you this news too. For the moment please stay tuned and await further updates.”
Americans held hostage in North Korea
But adventure seekers may want to think twice before booking, as the country and its diminutive dictator have been known to lure Americans to it — and then hold them hostage.
In 2016, college student Otto Warmbier was detained and tortured after trumped-up charges were leveled against him claiming he had tried to steal a propaganda poster. He became seriously ill while in the North Korean prison … only to be freed 17 months after his arrest and die in a hospital six days after returning to the U.S. in June 2017.
Warmbier’s father told the BBC when he saw his son, he was “moving around, and jerking violently, making these howling and inhuman sounds.”
According to the BBC, another American, Matthew Miller, a 24-year-old teacher from California, was also on an organized tour when he was arrested and charged with “hostile” espionage acts in April 2014.
“Miller was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment with hard labor in September 2014. In interviews before and after his release, he said he spent much of his time digging in fields, moving stones and taking out weeds, but was otherwise largely kept in strict isolation,” the BBC writes.
Tracy Walder, national security contributor for NewsNation, told me: “As of now, no American should visit North Korea under any circumstances. NK regularly, like Russia, engages in hostage diplomacy, i.e., the taking of foreign hostages to have their policy demands met or for financial reasons. This gives them more fuel for that. I have no doubt an American would end up a pawn in their game.
