North Korea finally reopens after Covid, but with week-long quarantine

Pyongyang [North Korea], August 28 (ANI): North Korean State media announced on Sunday that the country has dropped an entry prohibition placed on its nationals who are overseas due to Covid-19 concerns, reopening its border after more than three years of rigorous virus restrictions, Yonhap News Agency reported.

The North's national emergency epidemic prevention headquarters has announced that North Korean "citizens abroad have been allowed to return home," as it has decided to "adjust the anti-epidemic degree in reference to the eased worldwide pandemic situation," Yonhap reported citing Korean Central News Agency.

Yonhap News Agency is a major South Korean news agency, based in Seoul, South Korea.

It added that those who return home will be put under "proper medical observation at quarantine wards for a week."

Last week, Air Koryo, the state airline of North Korea, delivered passengers from Pyongyang to Beijing and Vladivostok, bringing them back home. More North Korean diplomats, workers, and students who have been abroad are anticipated to return to the North following the removal of the immigration ban.

When North Korea reported its first case of Covid-19 in May 2022, after closing its border in January 2020, the government enacted "maximum emergency anti-epidemic" efforts, as reported by Yonhap.

The Covid-19 crisis was declared over by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in August of last year, putting an end to the pandemic in the country. But despite beginning train and truck trade operations with China and Russia until last year, North Korea had maintained its strict border lockdown.

The sceretive regime welcomed high-ranking representatives from China and Russia to its military parade in July, welcoming the nation's first known foreign visitors since Pyongyang closed its borders.

Earlier this month, buses from North Korea carrying dozens of its taekwondo athletes crossed the border into China to compete in the ITF Taekwon-Do World Championships in Kazakhstan.

Seven judokas from the North have also signed up to compete in the Asian Games, which will take place in Hangzhou, China, from September 23 to October 8, Yonhap reported. (ANI)