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Visitors to North Korea do not travel on their own: tourists may go only on a guided tour, and they can expect constant supervision and monitoring by the authorities. Wikivoyage's guide calls it the world's most isolated country, one of the few remaining communist states and the last frontier of the Cold War. As of September 2026, it says, tours are available only to Russian citizens, and its one loophole is to join a sporting delegation such as the yearly Pyongyang Marathon, which is open to amateurs running distances as short as 5 km. Before COVID, about 5,000 Western tourists visited each year. The guide's advice for anyone uneasy about strict limits on expression, movement and behavior, or about the risk of arbitrary, indefinite detention, is not to go.
North Korea regions (Burmesedays, CC BY-SA 3.0).
The country at a glance
The capital is Pyongyang, the currency is the North Korean won and the population is 26.4 million (2023). The official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), and the language is Korean, which North Koreans call chosŏn-mal. Its alphabet, chosŏn'gŭl, is hangul to the rest of the world. The government is described as a personalist, totalitarian dictatorship led by the State Affairs Commission, with the supreme leader as its chairman. Society is organized along a caste system called Songbun, in which a person's group depends on their own and their family's political, social and economic background for the previous three generations. The climate is continental with summer rain, winters as cold as -30 C, and occasional typhoons in early autumn.
A short history
| Period | What happened |
|---|---|
| Ancient | Legend places the founding of Gojoseon in 2333 BC. The Three Kingdoms of Goguryeo, Silla and Baekje followed; Goguryeo ruled the entire area of modern North Korea |
| Goryeo | The dynasty from which the name "Korea" derives |
| Joseon | Ruled from 1392 until 1910, when Japan annexed Korea outright |
| 1945 | Japan's defeat in World War II ended its colonial rule; the Allies divided Korea along the 38th Parallel, with the Soviet Union in the north and the United States in the south |
| 1948 | North Korea established with Soviet support, with Kim Il-sung as leader |
| 1950-1953 | The Korean War began when the North invaded; it ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty, so the two Koreas are officially still at war |
| Mid-1990s | The agricultural system collapsed after Soviet aid ended in 1991, and widespread famine followed. Kim Il-sung died in 1994 |
| 2011 | Kim Jong-il died, and his son Kim Jong-un took over |
Kim Il-sung developed Juche ("self-reliance") as his own ideology, and Kim Jong-il added the songun, "military first," policy.
Getting in
Everyone needs a visa, and tourists usually get one by booking a tour, with the agency handling the paperwork. Entry is only from China or Russia, and most people fly or take the train from Beijing. The visa is usually issued on a tourist card, with no stamp in the passport. Guides typically keep your passport for at least the first days. South Korean citizens need permission from both governments, and journalists need special permission and may not enter on a tourist visa. The United States, South Korea and Malaysia forbid their citizens to go without special permission, and a visit makes a traveler ineligible for the U.S. Visa Waiver Program. Tours from Beijing started from around $1,000 for five days including accommodation, meals and transport. The Panmunjom Joint Security Area is the only place in North Korea that regular tourists can visit from the South, where one can briefly cross into the North inside one of the conference rooms that straddle the border.
The Panmunjom Joint Security Area viewed from South Korea (Henrik Ishihara Globaljuggler, CC BY-SA 3.0).
On a tour
A government minder accompanies every tour and decides what you can see. Wandering alone is not allowed, and transport is arranged by the tour company, mostly buses. Guides may inspect photos and order ones that show the country in a bad light deleted; photographing military personnel is generally prohibited, and cameras are commonly inspected when leaving by train. Most sightseeing is war memorials, monuments to the leaders and the Workers' Party, and museums. Highlights in and around Pyongyang include Kim Il-sung Square, where the grand military parades take place, and the Grand People's Study House, a library of over 30 million books. Outside the capital, Kaesong has a lovely old town and the UNESCO-listed tomb of King Kongmin, Kumgangsan (the Diamond Mountains) offers waterfalls and lakes, and the Masikryong ski resort near Wonsan opened in winter 2013. Foreigners are expected to pay in US dollars or Chinese renminbi, or in euros or Japanese yen; the won is generally unavailable to them.
Pyongyang in the morning (Cheddaz, public domain).
Mountainous landscapes near Kaesong (Nicor, CC BY-SA 3.0).
The rules the guide stresses
- Respect. Say and do nothing that could be seen as disrespectful to the Kim dynasty, the government, the Workers' Party, North Korean citizens, Juche or songun. Do not crumple or mishandle newspapers, stamps, posters or money that carry the leaders' names and images.
- Statues. Groups are asked to bow and lay flowers in front of the statues of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il at important monuments, and to photograph each statue whole.
- Contraband. Drugs can be punished by death; religious texts and ideological material can cause serious problems.
- Conduct reflects on guides. A guide is blamed for a tourist's misbehavior, and visitors are told to stay silent on politics, economic systems and human rights.
- Detention. Incidents have occurred, and the most likely result of trouble with the authorities is a period of detention before deportation, although much more severe penalties have also occurred.
- Health. Tap water appears to be untreated, so bottled water is advised. Travel insurance is strongly recommended and is required on most organized tours.
Sources
- Wikivoyage contributors, North Korea, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Photographs credited beside each under their own licences: Burmesedays (CC BY-SA 3.0), Henrik Ishihara Globaljuggler (CC BY-SA 3.0), Cheddaz (public domain), Nicor (CC BY-SA 3.0). Changed here: rewritten in hubnx's own words and shortened, with listings, prices, opening hours and phone numbers left out; this page stays under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Licens: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bearbetat efter en.wikivoyage.org
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