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How to get into North Korea

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Stevo from Asian Ramblings had a question that is quite practical in relation to the post on Six things to see in the Axis of Near Evil. He asked about how easy it was to get a visa for North Korea.

Great question! I’m going to take that question and expand that into an answer about how you’d go about traveling there. You’ve been inspired by the article and now want to go to North Korea. So how do you go about doing it?

The answer is that you need to sign up with a guided tour. There’s no way around it. No independent travel is allowed. You also need to get a North Korean visa. The tour agency can help you with getting the visa, and this route is probably the easiest way to get one.

Koryo Tours is a Beijing-based company (run by British expats) that specializes in North Korean tours. They have an excellent relationship with the North Korean government and claim that they have not had any visa applications refused (with the caveat that there is still a small possibility of this happening). You generally need to send the visa application to them at least 4 weeks before travel, along with a scan of a passport photo and a scan of your passport’s photo page. Since the flights to Pyongyang depart from Beijing, you will also need an appropriate Chinese visa (at least double entry if you’re not already in China).

There are actually separate tours for US citizens, as Americans are only allowed into North Korea sporadically. A number of tour opportunities for US citizens have been approved for 2008, but North Korea may be again closed off to Americans in 2009. Other years where Americans were allowed visas include 2002, 2005, and 2007. South Koreans are generally restricted to tourist areas in the Diamond Mountains and Kaesong. Citizen of other countries generally do not face any of these special restrictions. Other citizens: don’t you feel lucky?