NORTH KOREA - Partially Reopens Tourism After 5 Years
North Korea will be partially resuming international tourism this year after nearly half a decade, according to tourist operators.
The Beijing-based tourism agency, Koryo Tours, which specializes in tourism to North Korea, announced that tourism to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will resume in December of this year.
Tours will only be organized for the North Korean city of Samjiyon but the reopening may be extended to other locations, Koryo Tours said.
The Hermit Kingdom closed its borders at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, banning almost all outsiders from entering the country for business, travel, or non-vital diplomatic relations. The country only partially started to re-open its borders last year.
The country has struggled to open itself fully since the pandemic, when the regime could not field the necessary resources and infrastructure to effectively combat the outbreak within its borders.
-www.foxnews.com, 15 August 2024
Commentary
Step by step, we are seeing North Korea ready to interact with other nations; most recently, reaching out to Russia and Iran. With their economic situation becoming more dire after tightening their borders during the pandemic, and amid ongoing Western sanctions, they are seeking ways to boost their income. Tourism seems like an unusual choice by their standards, yet there is no doubt that an influx of ready-to-spend visitors (mostly from China) is a tantalizing prospect.
This proves that even the most hermit-like nation cannot avoid the trappings of world unity in the name of merchandise. As Revelation 18:3 reads, “For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her [Mystery Babylon’s] fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.” -By K. Farmer
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
