North Korea has officially repealed the 21-day
mandatory quarantine imposed on residents returning to the country from abroad and disbanded surveillance task forces enforcing the measure.
“Including the hotel quarantine procedure, the sequester of residents entering North Korea from overseas has been lifted,” a source in North Hamkyung Province reported to the Daily NK on
March 3rd. “Those coming into North Korea from abroad
no longer need the previously required ‘sanitation
certificates’ proving that they spent three weeks in
quarantine after reentry.”
“The Central Party recently called back
task forces originally slated to carry out inspections until the end of the
month,” he said, adding that rumors have already begun
circulating about an expectant scrapping of stringent regulations for those frequently crossing the Sino-North Korea border for business purposes.
At Kim Jong Eun’s
behest, units comprising fifteen quarantine officials were sent to each customs offices across the country earlier this month to tighten up surveillance on cross-border movements and ensure those reentering the country adhered to the procedures in place. The quarantine and related procedures have been strictly enforced–applied even to high-ranking officials returning to the country from abroad.
According to the source, Kim Jong Eun’s subsequent decision to withdraw the units and end the quarantine period stemmed from the
disruption of trade between China and North Korea the regulations caused. “The fact that no reported cases of the Ebola virus emerged in either
North Korea or China is also thought to have influenced the revocation,” he said.
In addition, Beijing-based Koryo Tours, a company specializing in trips to the North, recently released a statement on its website that the ban on foreign tourists to North Korea, in effect since October 2014, is set to lift soon.
Once a high-ranking official in North Korea, one defector told the Daily NK, “The
North Korean authorities probably decided to attract foreign currency through
foreign tourists in the spring. In order to galvanize economic development, it
saw the need to forgo these prohibitive regulations on entry into the North.”
As previously reported by the Daily NK,
residents were mobilized for major construction efforts earlier this month to
repair and expand roads near the Chilbo Mountain area in Myongchon County–a
popular tourist destination–as part of efforts aimed at attracting more visitors from China
and Russia in the spring.
*The contents of this article were broadcast to the North Korean people via Unification Media Group.
