Russians enter North Korea in first foreign tour group since Covid-19 pandemic
The group included people in the tourism business and “travellers from literally all parts of Russia from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok” who will spend four days taking in sights in the North including a major ski resort, it said.
“We will look forward to new encounters with tourists from Russia!” it said. The ski resort it mentioned was a high-profile development project spearheaded by North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un after he took power in 2011.
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South Korea’s Yonhap news agency earlier cited Russia’s Tass news agency as saying that 97 Russians, including teen ski athletes, departed from Russia’s far eastern city of Vladivostok on the first group tour to North Korea since the pandemic.
The visit comes after Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin met north of Vladivostok in September and pledged closer economic and military cooperation amid charges by Washington that Pyongyang was helping Putin in the war in Ukraine.