Beijing’s ambassador to North Korea expressed hope for the return of Chinese tourists to Pyongyang on Monday, according to the embassy’s website, after a five-year absence of tour groups from the DPRK’s northern neighbor.

Ambassador Wang Yajun “hopes that more Chinese tourists will visit the Pyongyang Metro in the future” — a “key tourist attraction for Chinese visitors” — to help promote bilateral relations, the embassy said in a report on his visit to the capital’s subway system.

North Korea closed its borders to all tourists at the onset of the pandemic in Jan. 2020, and only started to allow