A North Korean travel agency has partnered with Taiwanese proprietors to offer new travel opportunities to prospective Taiwanese visitors.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/08/01
By: Yang

Photo Credit: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen CC BY 3.0

After Kim Jong-un took meetings with his American and South Korean counterparts earlier this year, there is a sense that North Korea is warming up to the outside world. U.S. President Donald Trump, speaking after the June 12 summit, certainly thought so. “They have great beaches,” he told journalistsin Singapore. “You see that whenever they are exploding their cannons into the ocean. I said, boy, look at that view, wouldn’t that make a great condo? And I explained it. I said, instead of doing that, you could have the best hotels in the world.”

On July 19, a North Korean travel agency came to Taipei to tout travel opportunities in the DPRK. In a press conference, the “Mysterious North Korean Immersive Experience Tour Group” was launched, featuring two tour packages: a four-day, three-night tour, and a six-day, five-night excursion, with rates ranging from NT$30,000 (US$980) to NT$60,000 (US$1,960) depending on itineraries. For the first time, Taiwanese travelers who want to visit North Korea will not need to go through third-party agencies.

The initiative was spearheaded by the Korean Heritage International Travel Company. A joint venture between China’s Jiangyin Huaxi International Travel Service and the North Korean National Bureau for Cultural Property Conservation, it is North Korea’s only travel agency which operates overseas. On July 20, in cooperation with Taiwan’s Chung Hsing Travel Service, it celebrated the opening of its Taiwan sales center, symbolizing that North Korean tourism had officially landed in Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]