North Korea has announced that it will not allow any foreign tourists beginning Friday due to the threat posed by the Ebola virus, said the country's tour operators.
"We have just received official news from our partners in the North Korea that, as of tomorrow, tourists from any country, regardless of where they have recently visited, will not be permitted to enter," said Gareth Johnson of Young Pioneer Tours, a travel company based in China that runs tours in North Korea, reports Reuters.
Other companies that offer tours to North Korea confirmed the news, which they said came through official channels in Pyongyang and Beijing.
Koryo Tours, another China-based company that offers tours to North Korea, posted on its social media accounts that it has been told that no foreign tourists would be permitted to enter North Korea beginning Friday. The tour operator said that it was not clear how long the ban would last. However, a Koryo company official said that the measures did not seem to be a complete ban on travel to North Korea. He added that that business and government visits would be permitted to continue.
"The situation seems to still be in flux, and while the early news from our partners in Pyongyang was that all tourists would be barred from entering (North Korea) we are still hopeful of taking in three groups we have scheduled to travel for the rest of 2014," said Nick Bonner, the Koryo Tour's co-founder, reports the Associated Press.
North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said Thursday that travelers and cargo are now subject to stricter monitoring at airports, seaports and border railways crossings. However, it did not confirm the tourist ban.
North Korea is one of the most isolated countries of the world. The international community has also accused North Korean authoritarian regime of committing crimes against humanityincluding systematic extermination, torture, rape, forced abortions and starvation.
The last time the country closed its borders was in 2003 due to the threat of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
