North Korean Economy Watch

UPDATE 4: from a reliable source

The situation was caused by a mistranslation. Following the nuclear test and rocket launch earlier in 2009, the FCO suspended funding (and therefore visas) for FCO FUNDED DPRK PROJECTS IN THE UK for three months. This, unfortunately, was mistranslated into “suspending visas for DPRK citizens”, thus the cerfuffle.

UPDATE 3: By Michael Rank

Confusion over a reported ban on Britons visiting North Korea and North Koreans coming to Britain seems to have been cleared up.

Koryo Tours said last week that they had been informed by their partner, Korea International Travel Company, that “In connection with the recent measures taken by UK government not to allow DPRK citizens to enter the UK we also will not receive any UK citizens as tourists to the DPRK for the time being.”

After some confusion, a spokesman for the North Korean embassy in London said on Monday that they had been reassured that there was no ban on DPRK citizens visiting Britain and that North Korea was therefore issuing visas to Britons as normal, although as usual it “depends on the case”.  He had “no idea” how the confusion had arisen.

A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokeswoman confirmed that “we have not introduced any new measures (regarding visas for North Koreans), nor have we refused any visas recently.”

The Home Office recently posted figures showing that in recent years Britain has somewhat surprisingly issued 13-18 North Koreans a year with tourist visas, including a few under-18s. Most of the few North Koreans visiting Britain presumably come as part of official delegations, including a Workers’ Party of Korea group who came last January.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Monday: “No individual [North Korean] officials are currently subject to travel bans or asset freezes. The new UN Security Council Resolution 1874, passed on 12 June 2009 tasks the UN Sanctions Committee to designate further organisations and individuals for travel bans and asset freezes.”

UPDATE 2: Koryo Tours has notified me that the visa restriction has now been lifted.  According to their email:

We have just been informed by our Korean partners that the ban on UK citizens travelling to the DPRK has been lifted and they are now once more accepting visa applications from Brits.

All tours will be running as expected with no restrictions on any nationalities, and all US tours in the summer are expected to also go ahead.

UPDATE 1:  Michael Rank has managed to uncover the number of tourist visas issued by the UK government to North Korean citizens from 2005-2008 (source):

2005 
Over 18: 17
Under 18: 1

2006
Over 18: 13
Under 18: 3
 
2007 
Over 18: 12
Under 18: 1

2008 
Over 18: 15
Under 18: 2

See the origins of the travel ban below:

ORIGINAL POST: According to a Koryo Tours update:

On Thursday June 11th we received the following notification from our Korean travel partners:

“In connection with the recent measures taken by UK government not to allow DPRK citizens to enter the UK we also will not receive any UK citizens as tourists to the DPRK for the time being.”  Korea International Travel Company

This is most likely a reaction to the recent UN sanctions that have been drafted against the DPRK that are to be signed on Friday.

For any UK citizens who have booked a tour with us or are thinking of travelling with us please get in touch and we can advise. We expect that UK citizens travelling on our two group tours to Pyongyang next week will not be affected as the visas have already been issued.

We have not been given any indication of how long this travel restriction will last and as yet the only people affected are UK citizens – all other nationalities remain unaffected but as always we will keep you updated as and when we receive new information.

Yours sincerely,

Koryo Tours

Reuters adds the following:

About 2,000 western tourists a year visit North Korea, of which a few hundred are British.

“It’s a pity to me that measures like this prevent day-to-day engagement between ordinary people,” said Koryo Tours’ Nick Bonner, who has made a documentary about taking a team of North Korean football players on a trip to England.

Next year marks the tenth year of diplomatic relations between North Korea and Britain.

Tourists from the United States are currently restricted to visiting North Korea only during the Mass Games, which will be held in August and September this year.

Read the full story here:
North Korea suspends visas for British tourists: agency
Reuters
Lucy Hornby
6/11/2009

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 at 9:24 am and is filed under Koryo Tours, Tourism, United Kingdom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.