SEOUL: N Korea has moved to further open up from strict pandemic-period isolation, with official media reporting Sunday that Nationals living abroad have been permitted to return to the country. KCNA reported that the State Emergency Epidemic Prevention Headquarters has said that “nationals abroad have been permitted to return to the country.” The report maintained, “Those returned will be put under medical observation at quarantine wards for several days,”. It maintained that the decision has been made “in reference to the eased pandemic situation across the world.”
North Korea Permits Return of its Nationals from Abroad
N Korea shut its borders in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but there have been growing signals the nation has moved towards opening. Russian officials also attended a military parade in N Korea’s capital Pyongyang last month — the first foreign notables to visit the nation in years.
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Earlier, a delegation of players was permitted to attend a taekwondo game in Kazakhstan, while state-run Air Koryo made its first global flight in three years. The commercial flight arrived Tuesday at Beijing’s Capital Airport. Reports said that another Air Koryo flight bound for N Korea departed. China’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs said that it had also approved restarting commercial air travel between Pyongyang and Beijing.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, “During the autumn and summer flight season… China approved flight plans for travelers such as the Beijing-Pyongyang and Pyongyang-Beijing routes of Air Koryo,”.
