China-North Korea passenger train service resumes after 6-year hiatus

JAKARTA - Passenger train services connecting China and North Korea resumed on Thursday in both directions after being suspended for six years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reviving cross-border exchanges between the two countries.

A train bound for Pyongyang departed from Beijing Railway Station on Thursday afternoon, and another train departed from the North Korean city for Beijing in the morning, Kyodo News reported (13/3).

The service connecting the two neighboring capital cities operates four times a week, every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Currently, passengers traveling for the day are limited to diplomats and businessmen, as North Korea has not resumed issuing visas for tourists.

Separately, daily cross-border train service between Dandong, a border city in Liaoning Province, northeast China, and Pyongyang also resumed on Thursday.

Tickets for the first train after services were restored sold out in China, according to a source familiar with the matter.

According to China's railway service center, international trains connecting the two capitals are scheduled to resume their round-trip service on Thursday, The Korea Times reported.

China confirmed the resumption of passenger train services between the two countries.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a regular news briefing that China and North Korea are "friendly neighboring countries," and maintaining regular passenger train services has "an important significance for facilitating people-to-people exchanges between the two sides."

He added that China supports communication between the relevant authorities in both countries to create more comfortable conditions for cross-border travel.

It is known that before North Korea closed its borders in early 2020 due to the global health crisis, Chinese citizens were the largest percentage of foreign tourists.

Passenger train service, which began in 1954, has long been considered a symbol of bilateral friendship. China is North Korea's largest trading partner and a long-term economic contributor.

North Korea has not fully opened up to international tourists even after the pandemic, only accepting a small number of Russian tour groups.

An international marathon originally scheduled for April 5 in Pyongyang was canceled for unknown reasons, the official travel agency for the sporting event said on Monday.

Previously, during the ruling Korean Workers' Party's key congress in February, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un promised to develop tourism into a "new industry that drives the country's economic growth and civilization."

Last September, Leader Kim held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing for the first time in six years and agreed to deepen economic cooperation and strategic communication.