Russia has begun allowing North Korean citizens to use electronic visas for entry into the city of Saint Petersburg, the state-run TASS news agency reported this week.

The new e-visa rule expands on a similar policy passed two years ago for DPRK nationals seeking to travel to Russia’s far-eastern city of Vladivostok.

The new policy applies to citizens of 53 countries, including China, Japan, Singapore, India, and Mexico, as well as the DPRK.

“It is extremely important for Saint Petersburg,” Sergey Korneev, a senior official in Russia’s federal tourism agency, was reported to have said.

Saint Petersburg’s acting governor, Alexander Beglov, also predicted that the new policy would increase the number of overseas tourists traveling to the city from 8.2 million annually to 12 million, the report said.

How the new e-visa rule will affect DPRK citizens who hope to travel to Saint Petersburg remains to be seen.

Anthony Rinna, an analyst on Russian foreign policy in East Asia for the Sino-NK research group, said the city’s desired boost in tourism is more likely to come from other countries that have stronger middle classes.

“Russian officials certainly can’t expect an influx of tourists from North Korea,” said Rinna.

Instead, he told NK News, “the inclusion of the DPRK on the list of eligible countries appears to be more symbolic than substantive.”

“Particularly given the fact that South Korean citizens enjoy the right to enter Russia as a whole as tourists visa-free for 60 days, excluding North Korea from [the] list risks sending the message that Russia cannot or will not extend a sign of treating the DPRK as a normal state,” he said.

The announcement of the new e-visa policy also comes as Russia and North Korea are tied up in a feud over illegal fishing in each other’s waters.

On Wednesday, Russia’s Federal Security Bureau (FSB) announced the arrest of 64 North Korean fishermen for poaching in Russian territory.

Those arrests brought the total number of DPRK nationals recently detained for illegal fishing to 574.

The dispute, however, has not appeared to hurt the overall relationship between the two allies.

Later this month, a delegation from North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) is expected to travel to Russia for a meeting with the Federation Council, also known as the Russian Senate.

The planned meeting follows a trip taken by members of Russia’s parliament to Pyongyang earlier this year to meet with their counterparts there.

The two countries’ leaders, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, also held a summit in Vladivostok — their first meeting — this past April.

North Koreans are now entitled to use e-visas to enter Vladivostok, Kaliningrad, and the entire Leningrad region, which includes the city of Saint Petersburg, TASS’s report this week stated.

DPRK nationals will be allowed to stay in the city for up to eight days, it added, and will not be charged a consular fee.

Edited by Oliver Hotham

Featured image: Flickr user “Ninara“