At this moment, most tourists can only go inside the DPRK as part of a guided tour. We picked Koryo tours, a travel company with (mainly) British staff based in Beijing. They booked the flight tickets, hotel, obtained visas and took care of all the details.

We departed from Beijing aboard a Tupolev 204 flown by Air Koryo, DPRK’s flight carrier (which was parked side by side at the gate with a South Korean counterpart). Service was good and food, although not fancy, tasted better than most other food we had aboard planes.

The terminal building in Pyongyang was basic but enough for the light traffic. We cleared the immigration and customs without issues and without luggage search, but we had to declare all electronic devices.

The group was formed by 20 tourists, mostly from UK, Australia and Germany. We were accompanied by 2 guides from Beijing and the following Korean staff: 2 senior guides, 2 junior guides, 2 drivers, 1 camera operator and 2 more persons that appeared to be in charge with general oversight. At the beginning they were very tense but after 1-2 days everybody was friendly and relaxed.