Posted on 09/03/2006 3:55:54 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
BEIJING: North Korea has suddenly banned nearly all Chinese tour groups, citing a need to fix its roads and railways, travel agencies in China said on Sunday.
North Korea's National Tourism Administration issued the notice to Chinese tour organizers in the middle of last month, said an executive with the Guotai Travel Agency in Dandong, a Chinese border city.
"All tours have been suspended, apart from business and trade groups and groups made up of ethnic Koreans from China," said the executive, who declined to be named.
An official with the Zhongqing Travel Agency, also in Dandong, confirmed North Korea's decision to suspend tour groups.
"They said it was because of maintenance of railways and roads," said the official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
An official with the China International Travel Service gave a different reason, saying North Korea had explained the quota for Chinese tourists had been used up for this year.
"It's our experience that North Korea suspends tours regularly, every two or three years," he said.
Last time was in the late summer of 2004 when Chinese state media said it was due to unspecified "domestic circumstances."
The secretive communist state has been under international pressure since test-firing seven missiles that splashed down in the Sea of Japan on July 5.
The United States has stepped up pressure on China, the North's closest ally, to take stronger action following the launches and to urge North Korea to return to six-nation talks on ending its nuclear weapons programme.
ping
That's interesting.
Agreed.
They must of gotten tired of hearing the ChiComs saying
"Boy, we thought it bad, look it this shithole"
"Watch your step, over the hungry Koreans eating tree bark. Today's tour concludes with a keynote speech by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright..."
What country suspends foreign tourism?
Unless you run out of treebark soup to feed the tourists, why wouldn't you want their money?
Bizarre.
North Korea mad at China for telling them to cool it.I would bet the Chi-Coms pay good money to visit.Mr ILLs does not need no steenkin tourist dollars anyway.It is,after all,a utopia!Just ask Mr.Ill.
“Kim Jong Il Retire… South Korea Seize North Korea” say Chinese Internet Users
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1691543/posts
Link to article.
Starving peasants are bad publicity.
And people wonder how Hitler came to power.
Wow! I'm gonna miss that 17 day tour of North Korea,
all the bark and what ever small amphibians you can catch,
plus the free interrogation and capitalist running dog self
criticism sessions.
Oh well, there's always next year, assuming there's a North
Korea next year.
Are there a lot of folks lining up for guided tours of NK? Waiting to see all the barren land, underground airfields and starving peasants no doubt.
Well, when I visited Panmunjom while during one of my many year-long tours in South Korea...
...I had the surprise of finding that, on the North Korean side, their was a Chinese tour group doing much the same thing I was doing on the South Korean side.
IE - Taking pictures, pointing, and gawking at the other side.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.