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China announces resumption of passenger trains to North Korea after COVID

BEIJING (AP) — China said Tuesday it will be resuming passenger trains to North Korea after service was halted during COVID.

Trains will run between Beijing and Pyongyang, four times a week starting Thursday. Daily train service will also resume at the border town of Dandong in China to Pyongyang, China’s railways authority announced.

The resumption of the service will “further promote people-to-people exchanges, economic and trade cooperation and cultural exchanges between China and North Korea,” the announcement said.

Tourism from China into North Korea has stalled since the pandemic. North Korea banned all foreign tourists during COVID but has slowly eased these restrictions, opening the country up to tourism again for the first time in 2024.

However, they have only allowed Russian tourists entry, even though Chinese tour groups made up 90% of all visitors prior to the ban, a move that surprised observers as China is the country’s biggest trading partner and major ally.

Tickets for the trains currently will only be available offline in China, the announcement added.

Beijing bans 4 New Zealand lawmakers from entering China because they visited Taiwan

By WTOP Staff
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Beijing banned four New Zealand lawmakers from traveling to China for a year and demanded they apologize because they visited Taiwan on a parliamentary trip, according to a message from the Chinese embassy conveyed via parliamentary officials and shown to The Associated Press on Thursday. China has hit lawmakers from other countries with sanctions related to contact with Taiwan before, but it's the first time for New Zealand parliamentarians, the government in Wellington said. Beijing has been increasing pressure in recent years on the democratically governed island that it claims as its own territory. Two lawmakers reached by the AP on Thursday rejected the demand for an apology, while the other two could not be immediately reached. New Zealand's government said it would express concern about the travel bans to Beijing. The elected officials visited Taipei in May, as New Zealand parliamentarians have done “for decades,” a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement.
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