The biggest border crossing between North Korea and China
has been closed to tourist groups, as nuclear tensions mounted, but business
travel is still allowed.
An official at the Dandong Border Office, who declined to
give his name, said: “Travel agencies are not allowed to take tourist groups
there, since the North Korean Government is now asking foreign people to
leave.”
“As far as I know, business people can enter and leave North
Korea freely,” he added.
China is North Korea’s sole major ally and the provider of
vast majority of its trade and aid, with most of the business passing through
Dandong.
A woman surnamed Wu at a travel agency in the town said
municipal authorities have told that because of tensions in Pyongyang, Dandong
travel firms would not be able to take tours into North Korea from today.
“It was absolutely North Korea’s (decision) because the
travel bureau told us ‘North Korea is now no longer allowing tour groups to be
taken in’,” the woman said.
Yesterday, Pyongyang had advised foreigners to consider
leaving South Korea, warning that the Korean peninsula was headed for
“thermo-nuclear” war.
Last week, North Korean authorities had also warned
embassies in Pyongyang to consider evacuating as it would be unable to
guarantee diplomats’ safety in the event of conflict, but the statement was
largely dismissed as empty rhetoric.
Most governments made it clear they had no plans to withdraw
personnel.
The Korean peninsula has been locked in a cycle of
escalating military tensions since the North’s third nuclear test in February,
which drew toughened UN sanctions.
Pyongyang’s bellicose rhetoric has reached fever pitch in
recent weeks, with near-dily threats of attacks on US military bases and South
Korea in response to ongoing South Korean-US military exercises.
Keywords: Nuclear tensions in Korean peninsula, China-North Korea border, tour groups to North Korea, Dandong travel firms, tourists groups to North Korea
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