Tour agencies: N Korea bans foreign tourists over new virus

By: Hyung-Jin Kim, The Associated Press Posted: Last Modified:

Advertisement

Advertise with us

SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of - North Korea has banned foreign tourists to guard against the spread of a new virus from China, tour operators in China said.

Read this article for free:


By clicking the button above, an account will be created and you will begin to receive some of our recommended newsletters. You may opt out of any newsletter by visiting your Email and Communication Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of any email.

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $1.44 a week*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*Billed as $5.77 plus GST every four weeks. After 52 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/01/2020 (2473 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of – North Korea has banned foreign tourists to guard against the spread of a new virus from China, tour operators in China said.

Foreign travel to North Korea has been temporarily suspended as of Wednesday, the Beijing-based Uri Tours said on its website citing its partners in Pyongyang.

It said it wasn’t immediately known how long the travel suspension will last or what protocols will be implemented.

FILE - In this Sept. 9, 2017, file photo, visitors walk across the Yalu River Broken Bridge, right, next to the Friendship Bridge connecting China and North Korea in Dandong in northeastern China's Liaoning province. North Korea banned foreign tourists to guard against the spread of a new virus from China, a tour operator said. The temporary closing of the North Korean border would begin Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020. (AP Photo/Emily Wang, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 9, 2017, file photo, visitors walk across the Yalu River Broken Bridge, right, next to the Friendship Bridge connecting China and North Korea in Dandong in northeastern China's Liaoning province. North Korea banned foreign tourists to guard against the spread of a new virus from China, a tour operator said. The temporary closing of the North Korean border would begin Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020. (AP Photo/Emily Wang, File)

“Our future tours remain open for booking,” the agency said. “But should this border closure affect your travel, we are giving tourists the ability to reschedule at any time or to receive a complete refund of their deposit (less bank charges) as per our terms and conditions.”

Two other well-known North Korea tour operators based in China confirmed the border closure.

Koryo Tours said in an email that North Korea “has closed all of their borders until further notice due to coronavirus.” Young Pioneer Tours said details about the travel suspension had not been elaborated by its North Korean partners.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles relations with North Korea, said Wednesday it couldn’t confirm the border closure with China.

Most foreign tourists to North Korea are Chinese or people who travel to the North from China, its major diplomatic ally and biggest aid benefactor.

Tourism has been one of the few legitimate sources of foreign currency for North Korea, which is under multiple rounds of U.N. sanctions over its nuclear program. The North has been building ski slopes, spas and other attractions to entice more tourists and revive its troubled economy.

North Korea hasn’t reported any cases of the new coronavirus centred in China. But its state media have reported about the outbreak in China to try to increase public awareness of the disease and its symptoms.

In 2003, North Korea closed its borders during the scare over SARS, which is caused by a different coronavirus. For several months between late 2014 and early 2015, North Korea also banned foreign tourists over fears of the spread of the Ebola virus.

In 2003, North Korea suspended South Korean tours to its scenic mountain for two months. The joint tour program was eventually put on hold in 2008 after a North Korean soldier fatally shot a South Korean tourist.

Related Articles

Manitoba health providers get coronavirus alert
Manitoba health providers get coronavirus alert

Advertisement Advertise With Us

Advertisement Advertise With Us

Report Error Submit a Tip

Advertisement

Learn more about Winnipeg Free Press Advertising solutions

More Stories

St. James council candidate Kurt Morton, sitting at a playground at Marjorie Park on Marjorie Street, says recreation infrastructure hasn't been a city priority for years. RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

City rec facilities crumbling

Ryan Thorpe 6 minute read Preview

City rec facilities crumbling

Ryan Thorpe 6 minute read Monday, Oct. 22, 2018

Throughout Winnipeg, decades-old community assets — pools, arenas and recreation and leisure centres — are deteriorating so quickly that service disruptions are inevitable.

Meanwhile, the city’s community services department, which is responsible for managing those assets, operates with an annual deficit of roughly $80 million, meaning there are scant resources to do little more than bail water on a sinking ship.

Soon, Winnipeggers will have a choice: fewer community services or higher costs.

“It poses a huge challenge because we have very limited dollars that we have to invest in our existing facilities. We also have growing demands for new amenities in new areas. We have to be very strategic,” said Ken McKim, manager of asset management for the department.

Read
Monday, Oct. 22, 2018

Adult education should be the foundation of the North

Jim Silver 5 minute read 2:00 AM CDT

Major economic developments are, we are being told, coming to northern Manitoba, focusing on the port of Churchill and the railway system that leads to it, and the production and export via that port of various commodities. Many challenges, particularly environmental, lie along that path, and they deserve particularly serious consideration if any development is to proceed.

One aspect of northern development about which almost nothing has been said is: “Who will do the work in the north?”

For decades past and still today, great reliance has been placed on bringing skilled tradespeople and other skilled workers to northern Manitoba from the south. The result has been that not only has the bulk of corporate profits been drained south, but so too have wages. As a result, rates of poverty are higher and formal educational levels are lower in the north than elsewhere in Manitoba. This is obviously detrimental to the north and particularly to those who live in the north.

If northerners themselves are to benefit from economic development in the north by forming the skilled labour force that will be needed, then we will need more of those northerners to be educationally prepared to undertake training for skilled employment.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The four previous budgets at City Hall in Winnipeg on Monday, Feb. 25, 2019. The City of Winnipeg is committed to developing a four-year budget beginning with 2020 and having it in place by the end of this year.

Multi-year budget to force councillors, bureaucrats to focus on the big picture

Aldo Santin 12 minute read Preview

Multi-year budget to force councillors, bureaucrats to focus on the big picture

Aldo Santin 12 minute read Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019

City hall is putting the final touches on the 2019 preliminary budget -- but the real tough job will start after that.

The city is committed to developing a four-year budget beginning with 2020, and having it in place by the end of this year.

It's a process that is filled with uncertainties, trying to balance four successive annual budgets at the same time, using assumptions on revenues and expenses that can change without notice: a provincial government that has frozen funding to city hall at 2016 levels and is reluctant to disclose annual funding commitments or share in unexpected revenues; erratic fuel prices; a possible change in government in Ottawa, which could bring new spending priorities. And in the middle of that four-year span, another civic election where new members of council may have other priorities than those laid out by the current crop of office holders.

Municipal governments across Manitoba are required to approve their annual operating and capital budgets by the end of March each year. But the criticism of decision-making at city hall has been that all the decisions are made on a year-to-year basis, keeping voters happy with an eye on the next election.

Read
Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019

Indigenous-, newcomer-focused job fair puts opportunity in spotlight

Gabrielle Piché 3 minute read Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026

Canadian Armed Forces pamphlets grazed the side of Serena Valiquette’s ribbon skirt, as the Grade 9 student clutched the handouts tight.

“When I get to age, I’ll probably apply,” said Serena, 14, joining pockets of students hopping from booth to booth — City of Winnipeg here, Manitoba Public Insurance there — at a job fair in Winnipeg on Tuesday.

The job seekers, present and future, were largely Indigenous and newcomers. It was the demographic organizer Clayton Sandy aimed to attract.

“We have the ability to open doors for young people,” Sandy said. “This is one of the ways we use.”

Faith, amid all the despair

Director Schrader returns to silver screen with complex view of religion and belief

Alison Gillmor 4 minute read Preview

Director Schrader returns to silver screen with complex view of religion and belief

Alison Gillmor 4 minute read Thursday, Jun. 14, 2018

Bleak, wintry and rigorously controlled — until it’s not — this Book of Job-like drama from American filmmaker Paul Schrader looks at the challenges of faith.

The 71-year-old Schrader, known for scripting four Martin Scorsese films (including Taxi Driver and Raging Bull) and for directing his own (including American Gigolo, Affliction and Auto Focus), grew up in a strict Calvinist home — he famously did not see a film until he was 17 — and has always been drawn to stories of agonizing and uncertain redemption.

As the Rev. Toller (Ethan Hawke) wrestles with what it means to lead a righteous life in our badly broken world, his spiritual fate remains in doubt. It is certain, however, that First Reformed marks a cinematic rebirth for Schrader after recent disasters like The Canyons and Dog Eat Dog. Serious, complex and moving, this is not a perfect film, but even its flaws are powerful.

Toller is a solitary man who has come to the ministry late in life, after a family tragedy and a failed marriage. First Reformed, a historic church in upstate New York that was once a stop on the Underground Railroad, has since been reduced to an austerely beautiful tourist shop, more of a museum than a place of worship.

Read
Thursday, Jun. 14, 2018
FILE - In this Sept. 9, 2017, file photo, visitors walk across the Yalu River Broken Bridge, right, next to the Friendship Bridge connecting China and North Korea in Dandong in northeastern China's Liaoning province. North Korea banned foreign tourists to guard against the spread of a new virus from China, a tour operator said. The temporary closing of the North Korean border would begin Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020. (AP Photo/Emily Wang, File)

Tour agencies: N Korea bans foreign tourists over new virus

Hyung-Jin Kim, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Tour agencies: N Korea bans foreign tourists over new virus

Hyung-Jin Kim, The Associated Press 3 minute read Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020

SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of - North Korea has banned foreign tourists to guard against the spread of a new virus from China, tour operators in China said.

Foreign travel to North Korea has been temporarily suspended as of Wednesday, the Beijing-based Uri Tours said on its website citing its partners in Pyongyang.

It said it wasn’t immediately known how long the travel suspension will last or what protocols will be implemented.

“Our future tours remain open for booking,” the agency said. “But should this border closure affect your travel, we are giving tourists the ability to reschedule at any time or to receive a complete refund of their deposit (less bank charges) as per our terms and conditions.”

Read
Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020