BEIJING — North Korea said Wednesday it will begin to allow more American tourists after years of heavy restrictions on visits, according to a tour operator.
The United States has never had diplomatic relations with North Korea since the Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Recent tensions have remained high over the North’s nuclear program.
Only about 2,000 tourists from the U.S. have visited since the country opened to Western tourism in 1987, according to the founder of a China-based tour group that says it has taken most of those visitors into the isolated country.
But the Koryo Group said it received an e-mail Wednesday afternoon from the state-run Korea International Travel Company saying the country will accept more American tourists this year.
The message gave no explanation for the move and said more specific information would come later, the agency’s founder, Nicholas Bonner, told The Associated Press. “This is a big, big change,” he said.
Bonner said his Beijing- based agency escorted about 280 American tourists to the country last year but estimated that number could jump to about 1,000 per year if restrictions were eased.
