North Korea to allow Russian tourists in February – first foreign travellers since Covid-19 pandemic

Soon after the planned arrival of the tourists, Japan’s women’s team is due to play a qualifying match for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics in Pyongyang’s Kim Il-sung Stadium on February 24.

If the game goes ahead, it would be the biggest international sporting event in North Korea since the pandemic, but there is a chance the match against a country Pyongyang regards as an arch enemy may be moved to a neutral site for political reasons.

In September, North Korea announced foreigners would be allowed to enter the country, according to a report by China’s state broadcaster CCTV. There was no immediate report in North Korea’s state media about the move, and no indications that any foreigners other than those representing a handful of official delegations from abroad have entered since then.

Kim Jong-un’s government has slowly been easing up on its border curbs by allowing high-level delegations from China and Russia to visit in July of last year and then sending commercial aircraft in August to Beijing and Vladivostok to return diplomats, students and workers who had been stranded abroad due to border restrictions.

But the US and others have accused North Korea for months of supplying arms to help President Vladimir Putin in his assault on Ukraine, which has likely opened up streams of aid from Moscow that could support Kim’s regime.