Relaxation of entry rules?
North Korea invites foreigners to golf tournament
08/09/2023 11:27 am
North Korea has had strict entry restrictions since 2020. Now, however, foreigners are again being invited to a golf tournament in Pyongyang in order to “make friends” there. The organizers lure with several attractions.
North Korea, which is largely isolated internationally, has invited foreign participants to a golf tournament in Pyongyang for the first time since the corona pandemic. “Foreign amateurs” could also take part in the competition held “in spring and autumn” in the capital, according to a post published in early August on the website of state-run tour operator DPR Korea Tour. Strict entry restrictions have been in force in communist-governed North Korea since the outbreak of the corona pandemic in early 2020, and there have recently been increasing signs of a relaxation.
Foreign athletes could “make friends with Korean amateur golfers” at the golf tournament, the date of which has not yet been announced by the DPR Korea Tour. A post published later on the website talks about attractions such as an underwater golf course, an archery range and a boat dock that the state agency Ryomyong Golf Travel Company built.
Strict, self-imposed Covid 19 entry restrictions have been in force in North Korea since the beginning of 2020. Recently, however, there were increasing signs of a reopening – especially with regard to tourists from neighboring China, which is friendly with the government in Pyongyang.
In July, Chinese and Russian leaders attended a military parade in Pyongyang to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War. In the same month, North Korea registered for this year’s Asian Games in Hangzhou, which begin at the end of September, according to Chinese information. The Pyongyang Golf Course was reportedly built in the early 1980s and officially opened in 1987 to mark the 75th birthday of the country’s founder, Kim Il Sung. Golf is seen in North Korea as an “important source of foreign exchange income,” said researcher An Chan-il, who fled North Korea years ago. At an important sports university in Pyongyang there is even a department for golf.
Meanwhile, little is known about the conditions on the golf course in Pyongyang. According to Song Bo-bae of South Korea, who won one of the few previous women’s golf tournaments in North Korea in 2005, the green there is “much slower than in South Korea”, which makes golfing “quite challenging”.