China-N Korea trains to resume

BEIJING:

Passenger train services between China and North Korea will resume this week six years after their suspension due to the Covid-19 pandemic, rail authorities in Beijing confirmed on Tuesday.

Train journeys between the two countries were halted in 2020 as they imposed strict border closures to prevent the coronavirus from spreading.

While China has since fully reopened its borders, North Korea has proceeded more slowly, though direct flights and train services with Russia resumed last year.

But China Railway announced on Tuesday evening that regular train services between Beijing and Pyongyang would resume on Thursday.

The services will help in "promoting personnel exchanges, economic and trade cooperation and cultural exchanges between the two countries," China Railway said.

Earlier on Tuesday, travel agents for an official ticketing booth in Beijing told AFP that anyone with a valid visa was now able to buy train tickets to the diplomatically isolated nation.

This would include Chinese people working and studying in North Korea, as well as North Koreans working, studying and visiting family abroad.

Another such ticketing booth in the Chinese border city of Dandong told AFP that sales would resume

on Wednesday but tourists were not yet eligible to buy tickets.