A group of Russians departed for North Korea on Friday, marking the first tourists to visit the country since the COVID-19 pandemic, NK News confirmed.

Natalia Zinina, a manager at Vostok Intur tour agency which organized the trip, told NK News that 97 people boarded Air Koryo’s Tu-154 to North Korea from Vladivostok on Friday.

Boarding finished at around 12:07 p.m. KST, according to Zinina, while an airport official told NK News that the flight was set to go ahead as scheduled.