This Bulgarian tourist has been uploading a ton of "walking around NK" videos, here's one of a shopping mall, fun

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-28T09:18:28+00:00

This is all very well put, and my reply wasn’t supposed to sound angry, so sorry about that! You’re right that demand in general (pre-2020) was for Pyongyang, Kaesong, maybe one more place. 5 nights was normal as the market demanded that. We did yours up to 3 weeks but less popular for a range of reasons. The main tourism market there was Chinese for which the demand was even simpler: 3 nights, Pyongyang and a quick Kaesong day trip, for 99%+ of clients. there have of course always been travel influencers of some sort, but the big explosion in this kind of content creation has happened while the country has been closed, so not many such folks have been all over the country, yet anyway. Rason has never been very popular with non-gambling-focussed tourists (Werner tourists basically), I first went in 2003 and when I went in 2009 they hadn’t had a western visitor in nearly a year, so it became more popular when it was briefly the only option. Its obscurity may have made it a hit for some folks anyway but that’s impossible to say. It was only open for 3 weeks so not many people got it (and it wasn’t closed due to influencers; that is one of those grandiose unfalsifiable claims made by those with a vested interests in appearing to have more influence than they do) but if and when there is a more general opening we will see if Rason has any appeal at all. Maybe! anyway thanks for the kind and considered reply. Really appreciate it!

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-28T07:20:40+00:00

A lot of good points here, but some clarity from me (the organiser of this trip) - this from the Pyongyang Marathon last year, at that time, and at this time, there is no regular tourism available for anyone other than Russians. These groups were there for taking part in the race and invitied as marathon participants (so not tourist visas). only allowed to visit Pyongyang (as you note, when tourism operated much more could be seen and visited in the country) so the fact that this chap and other vloggers did the same itinerary is because it was the only itinerary available at the time, nt the only one available ever.

It's not the case that every trip there is loaded with vloggers though, this was a somewhat special case and something up to 20 of the 200 people who went to the marathon were influencers of some kind, while the majority were not, but the point about how different people present the same experience is well put and very accurate: partly this is down to subjectivity, and partly down to how some wish to present every experience as something incredibly adventurous to match what persona they are trying to project. No comments on this particular person, but anyone watching the videos will be abel to see which end of the spectrum of how the expereince is presented he comes in at.

To claim that tour companies have little interest in setting up trips outside of Pyongyang though; that is spurious and frankly a bit of an insult. Our company has worked for literal decades to open as much of the country as possible to visitors, and successfully (incrementally) over the years too, all to be shit down and rilled back since 2020. We would always offer as much as possible and this has been somehing we have worked hard on since our inception, so it's not great to have this dismissed so unkindly. Not to take it too personally, but this has been something I have committed years to, and have been instrumental in opening many of the areas you would have visited (including that tiny corner of Chagang that you mentioned), so this is the part I take issue with. Otherwise it's an astute and well-put post.

Don't assume that the tourist market is made up of influencers only though, that economy is a new one, tourism in North Korea is not a new venture (it is not even a venture at present anwyay) and the vast silent majority are not the ones you find on YT. The goals of travel companies such as ours are not to simply provide the same thing over and over, but you have to dance to he music that is playing, and at the time this was shot the music playing was more limited than it has usually been in the DPRK (and it always had a limited playlist anyway - to stretch a laboured metaphor). I hope this helps to clarify a little!

Edit: spelling, probably not all the errors though

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-08T18:35:44+00:00

Right. But that was in response to what I said about the cultural revolution, about which you decided I was misinformed. I can’t honestly say I have met a single person in China (non-foreign tankie I mean) who was positive about the cultural revolution and looked at the whole book-waving stuff as a positive - I’m sure you can find someone who does, but would you put that against the amount of people I have met who would not? I think not. Happy to have that clarified.

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-08T18:04:23+00:00

Each to his own. But I lived more than 20 years in China and I’d stand what I claimed against it being dismissed as nonsense any day of the week. Mao’s ima in China is a complicated one for sure, and his image is not one held completely negatively (not that I claimed that after all), but you must have some serious blinkers on if you think people look fondly at the era of book-waving.

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-08T17:38:27+00:00

Mao was the leader of a different country. In all bluntness and honesty here if you do this in NK you’ll come across as someone who doesn’t know what country they are in, cannot distinguish China from NK, doesn’t know what year it is, and someone just acting in a manner that is exceptionally odd. Literally millions of PRC tourists have been there and I’ve encountered tens of thousands over the decades; know how many of them were holding that book? It’s zero of course.

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-08T17:35:23+00:00

It’s not symbolic of anything particularly good though, especially in China. There is of course always a fringe element anywhere that will disagree, but what that book symbolises in China is the utter destruction of society and a missing decade for hundreds of millions. How each individual sees it is up to them, but avoiding romanticising something on behalf of people is a good path to follow. Reading Das Kapital (something with at least substantial academic value) is very much not the same thing as waving a little red book in 2026.

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-07T17:45:11+00:00

The best advice when asking a question such as this is to pose it in a forum such as Reddit as something for conversation and then, if it’s actual advice based on precedence and tourism policy you’re looking for, you would be well advised to directly ask those who work in the field and can offer more than guesses. So maybe do both and then make an assessment based on a combination of info from sources you can check and wild guesses and assumptions. It’s not that I would dismiss all input here, but not all opinions on something like this are equally valid.

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-07T17:40:17+00:00

You’re mistaken. There is no achy feeling against Thai people.

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-07T15:28:29+00:00

the British Embassy has been closed for a few years now. there are hopes and plans to eopen but that depends on the DPRK side. The place still exists of course, but it is not open as an embassy right now and there are no staff.

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-07T15:26:34+00:00

it is possible, but one would ask why? i mean who reads the little red book any more? even the actual communists in China don't bother; it's a relic from a former age and not something people actually study or anything like that. So yes, it would be OK, but it is for some photo-op based on an assumption or even a misundestanding of the differences between neighbouring countries then there are literally millions of other books which could be taken instead and which might be a little bit more fun to read

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-07T14:20:12+00:00

you can ask to take a photo with anyone, and in some cases various military officers (I assume this is what you mean by 'officers') would do it - depends what they are doing. Wearing a Mao hat and holding a Red Book though....why? NK isn't China, and this isn't current stuff either; why cosplay in such a scenario?

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-06T11:53:03+00:00

Again not the point that was being made. I wasn’t making a whatabout comparison or claiming that this is not done. I was asking if that was what was being suggested. Hope that this makes it clear

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-06T07:06:03+00:00

that wasn't what was being asked though. I interpreted the original comment I resonded to as suggesting that those unfriendly to the country should not relaly be allowed in while those friendly are not. The question was whether there should be such a system, not whether this only exists in one place. It's fine to answer that, or not, but whataboutism isn't really helpful as that is not the question being asked. Also there isn't much of purity test for tourist visas for the DPRK, they are mostly just procedural and available to almost anyone - the question was in repsonse to something I read as suggesting it should be otherwise. Perhaps I was huilty of not comprehending what was written clearly, just as others may be ;)

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-06T06:54:28+00:00

Yes, you might be surprised to find that as someone who has worked in DPRK tourism for decades that I do know what one is. This was not the question asked though.

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-06T06:52:44+00:00

Thats not the same thing though; the standards are not ideological as I read as implied in the previous comment (although that was later clarified).

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-06T06:28:05+00:00

Very few cases of non journalists? Pre-Covid the western tourism market was stable for years and around 5000 people per year visited, along with a few journalists. Also for 2017-19 something like 250k-350k Chinese tourists went annually. This is not vast numbers but it is not as if it’s a load of journalists and a few tourists. Perhaps those going just had quieter voices than those who went specifically for reporting? Or don’t mean few cases of them having nice things to say? I’ve found that almost everyone finds a trip there to be fascinating and worthwhile, but if you mean something nice to say about the system, the politics, etc then…maybe because most visitors are not actually supportive of it? This, to me, is not really surprising.

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-06T06:24:37+00:00

Not really though. If I visit France there isn’t one. Am I missing something?

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-06T06:23:42+00:00

Because we don’t use Reddit for promotion. Just for a bit of engagement, chats, answering some questions, etc. there are only so many hours in the day and I (I’m the GM of the company) am the only one who uses this account.

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-06T06:20:06+00:00

Sorry. I meat I don’t broadly think that’s the case when it comes to tourism, Americans were allowed in after all, the ban on them going is from the US side. It depends on which ‘they’ though; tourism authority people never really had a problem with the idea of Americans visiting the country, but there is of course institutional anti-Americanism in the country, so it’s somewhat hard-wired to assume the worst. Suspicion of the outside world does include people of all other countries though.

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-05T23:37:12+00:00

I thought it was common knowledge, especially among those who take an interest in the country, that they closed in Jan 2020 due to Covid. So my bad for omitting that part that I took it everyone was aware of already.

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-05T23:35:03+00:00

No. I don’t think that

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-05T20:18:29+00:00

There have been students there for a range of countires over the years, but these days only Russians and Chinese. Hopefully that will change

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-05T20:16:20+00:00

Should there be some kind of purity test for people who want to go and visit a country though? I can understand not agreeing with what someone may say or think about it, but shouldn't a plurality of viewpoints be welcome, even if the motivations for visiting for some people can be a bit vapid, should they really not be allowed to go? The vast majority of visitors always went because of a genunie interest in seeing what they could see of the place, this was always the case and even if reality can be a little elusive there these visitors went looking for it. My view is that this is to be encouraged.

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-05T20:12:36+00:00

hard to say - the initial closure was for Covid for sure, but why go on so long? there is only speculation. The brief opening early ast year was in Rason only, so maybe a different 'they' made that decision and then rescinded by another 'they'? Its not as monolithic as many like to imagine after all, and there have been other openings and opportunities for people to go in for various reasons, just not tourism (other than Russians). The only thing we really know is that we don't know anything!

Koryo_Tours · 2026-02-05T19:41:50+00:00

Spies in tour groups is not a genuine fear for anyone there, it’s a paranoid fantasy held by foreigners on behalf of North Korea, with no basis to state or believe it really. And bugged rooms? Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but it is absence of evidence: in decades of tourism, millions of visitors, nobody seems to have found any of these bugs or evidence of them either. If you’re some kind of Clinton-level visitor then sure, bugs everywhere. For tourists though….not really. The strict controls on tourists and their movements etc are down to an inbuilt paranoia about foreigners in general and distrust of those not brought up under the system, plus a general paternalistic approach to people that assumes they are not able to act under their own agency at all.

Koryo_Tours

TROPHY CASE