North Korea recently issued an order to suspend issuing certificates to enter Pyongyang as part of efforts to prevent access to the capital ahead of Party Foundation Day (Oct. 10), Daily NK has learned.
According to a Daily NK source on Friday, North Korea issued an order on Sept. 20 stopping the issuance of certificates for personal or business travel to Pyongyang from Sept. 25 to Oct. 12.
Responding to the order, local certification bodies have reportedly notified local neighborhood offices and neighborhood watch units that they will not be accepting applications for travel or business trip certificates to Pyongyang from Sept. 25.
In North Hamgyong Province and Yanggang Province, the authorities have been canceling applications from the general population for travel certificates to Pyongyang.
In particular, severely ill patients with reservations at hospitals in Pyongyang cannot receive certificates to go to the capital, much to their frustration.
One woman in her sixties in Hoeryong’s Nammun-dong district with late-stage stomach cancer immediately made an appointment for surgery at a hospital in Pyongyang in August, when North Korea transitioned away from its “maximum emergency epidemic prevention system.”
Previously, she had been forced to make due with the provincial people’s hospital when the authorities got picky about issuing travel certificates in the wake of COVID-19, preventing her from seeking treatment at hospitals in the capital.
However, with the authorities suspending the issuance of travel certificates to Pyongyang, she has been forced to delay the surgery she worked so hard to schedule.
She now has to reserve a date after Oct. 10, but with so many patients waiting for treatment at Pyongyang hospitals, it is not clear whether she will even be able to schedule a date for surgery.
Meanwhile, a resident of Yanggang Province’s Pochon County who had been preparing to travel to Pyongyang to attend his brother’s wedding has been put into a tight spot after the authorities canceled the issuance of the travel certificate he had already applied for.
The resident in question bribed a guidance officer at the Second Department of the Ministry of Social Security with cash and cigarettes after he told him he could get him a certificate to go to Pyongyang, regardless of what the government decided to do.
In the end, however, he could neither go to Pyongyang nor get his money back, the source said.
The source said similar measures were taken ahead of the holiday marking the foundation of North Korea’s government on Sept. 9.
“Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the authorities have been severely limiting access to Pyongyang by residents of border regions ahead of national holidays,” he added.
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