North Korea has once again closed its borders, suspending foreign tourism just weeks after the secretive state welcomed its first Western visitors in five years.

North Korea has stopped tourists from visiting, just weeks after the first Western tourists entered the country for the first time in five years. North Korea sealed itself off at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, and started to scale back restrictions in the middle of 2023.

Tour group operators say the North Korean city of Rason has been closed to foreign visitors, following a recent trip there by 13 international tourists.

North Korea has stopped tourists visiting weeks after reopening its borders to westerners for the first time in five years. Travellers from the West were allowed into the country in February after Pyongyang continued to lift restrictions introduced during the Covid pandemic.

The group entered the country through China on their trip to Rason in the far northeast — more than 500 miles from the capital city of Pyongyang, which once occasionally welcomed occasional tourism groups, albeit under strict supervision and no real freedom of movement.

North Korea has abruptly suspended the entry of foreign tourists after reopening foreign tourism for the first time in about five years following COVID-19, according to tour agencies Thursday. Koryo Tours,