Chinese students back in North Korea as post-Covid exchanges return to life
- Group of 41, the first government-sponsored foreign students to enter North Korea since 2020, follows on heels of another 45 self-funded students
- Arrivals come weeks after China’s No 3 official leads large delegation on ‘goodwill visit’ to mark 75 years of diplomatic ties
China’s embassy in Pyongyang said the group represented the first government-sponsored foreign students to enter North Korea since the country closed its borders more than four years ago. The students were received at Pyongyang airport by embassy officials on Thursday.
Another 45 self-funded Chinese students had arrived in the North Korean capital “shortly before” this group, the embassy said in a post on its website on Friday.
While the number is slightly shy of pre-pandemic levels, their arrivals mark “the resumption of study abroad exchange programmes between China and North Korea”, according to the embassy.
North Korea was among the first countries in the world to seal its borders after a Covid-19 outbreak was first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan in January 2020.
While cross-border trade resumed in 2022, Korea has been slow to reopen its borders. It was not until August last year that flag carrier Air Koryo resumed flights between Pyongyang and Beijing, as well as Vladivostok in the Russian far east.
