North Korea Floods Stop China Tourists, Agents Say
Date: 04-Sep-06
Country: CHINA
North Korea has already postponed its "Arirang" mass games spectacle, a huge tourist attraction in which it celebrates its military might and communist ideology, because of the flooding, a South Korean official said on Monday.
"Effective on Aug. 9, tourist groups from China to North Korea have been stopped because of heavy floods as some of the railways and highways were severely damaged," an official with a travel agency in the Chinese border town of Dandong said on Saturday.
"But those people holding passports for commercial purposes may still go in small groups."
A Chinese businessman said some trips had stopped about two weeks ago but one-day trips had been halted much earlier. Business groups were still allowed in, he added.
"We are informed by the Korean tourist agent in Dandong that the stopping of border passes is mainly due to the floods," another travel agent said.
Three storms struck North Korea in July, washing away crops and raising the threat of famine. As of mid-July, more than 800 North Koreans were dead or missing, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper published in Japan said.
The Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy suggested North Korea had stopped issuing tourist visas because it was preparing for a nuclear test, but South Korea has said there are no signs of preparations for such a test.
US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill is to visit Japan, China and South Korea this week to discuss efforts to revive six-party talks aimed at coaxing North Korea to scrap its nuclear arms programme.
China has hosted the talks, which stalled late last year with North Korea protesting Washington's crackdown on firms it suspects of aiding Pyongyang in illicit activities and at the US refusal to hold one-on-one negotiations with North Korea.
Ties between China and North Korea have been strained since Pyongyang test-fired missiles in early July, ignoring Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's public plea for restraint.
China backed a UN Security Council resolution condemning the missile tests.
An aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has been visiting China, apparently seeking to ease the strains, sources told Reuters.
