Russian visits to North Korea slumped to a two-year low in the first quarter of the year, official border data showed, as Moscow continues to withhold information on DPRK entries into Russia after issuing 36,000 visas to North Korean nationals last year.

The Federal Security Service’s (FSB) border agency reported last week that 1,034 Russians visited North Korea in the first quarter of 2026, marking an over two-fold decrease from the nearly 2,500 trips in the last quarter of 2025 and the lowest number since the first quarter of 2024 when 870 Russian nationals went to the DPRK.

The number