Passenger train services between China and North Korea will resume this week, six years after they were suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic, travel operators said.
Train travel between the two countries was suspended in 2020 when strict border closures were imposed to prevent the spread of the virus.
China has since fully reopened its borders, but North Korea has proceeded more slowly, although direct flights and train services with Russia resumed last year.
Travel agents at official ticket offices in Beijing and the Chinese border city of Dandong said on Tuesday that Chinese working and studying in North Korea can now buy train tickets to the diplomatically isolated nation, with the first service leaving on Thursday.
North Koreans who work, study and visit relatives abroad can also buy tickets, they said. However, tourists still cannot buy tickets.
“It’s great to see international train service resuming,” Rowan Beard, travel director at Young Pioneer Tours, told Agence France-Presse. He confirmed that his company, one of several foreign firms specializing in trips to North Korea, could also arrange tickets starting Thursday.
“While not initially intended for tourists, it will provide another travel option once tourism returns to North Korea, serving as an alternative to flying,” Beard said.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun did not confirm the reports when asked by reporters at a news conference on Tuesday.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry said in a statement that “we understand that the Pyongyang-Beijing international rail service will resume operations on March 12 and we will continue to closely monitor related developments.”
China is historically North Korea’s biggest backer and a crucial lifeline to its moribund economy, although Pyongyang has moved closer to Russia since the start of the Ukraine war.
Isolated authorities in Pyongyang have given conflicting signals about whether more openings are planned.
On Monday, Koryo Tours said North Korea had canceled an international marathon in its capital, Pyongyang, originally scheduled for early next month, citing an official statement with no explanation for the decision.
The cancellation was unexpected, the company said, adding that it understood the decision had been “made at a higher level than the organizers of the event itself.”
The marathon is the largest international sporting event in North Korea and offers visitors a rare opportunity to run through the tightly controlled streets of Pyongyang.
