China-DPRK tourist route reopens

CHANGCHUN -- A oft-suspended tourist route between China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has been reopened after its latest closure.

A charter flight carrying 73 tourists left from Yanji, in the Korean Autonomous Prefecture of Yanbian in Northeast China's Jilin province, for Pyongyang in the DPRK on Thursday.

The route will be open until early October, with a planned 32 charter flights on Thursdays and Sundays. All seats on the flights in June have been booked, according to Yanbian Tianyu Travel Agency, which runs the route with the DPRK's Air Koryo.

A four-day trip costs 3,980 yuan (about $650) per person while a five-day trip costs 4,480 yuan per person, according to the agency.

The route between Yanji and Pyongyang was first opened in July 2012, but it was closed for the whole of 2013 due to tensions in the DPRK. It resumed on June 29 last year and was suspended again in October. A total of 90 flights had been completed on the route by October.