How to prove you’ve been to North Korea? This is our exclusive guide on how to prove you’ve been to North Korea. You may have missed this on your first visit, but this guide will teach you how to receive the proper documentation to prove you’ve actually been to North Korea for all the visa and stamp collectors out there.
How many people visit North Korea?
It’s a known fact that North Korea doesn’t receive a staggering number of tourists. In fact, the total number of western tourists that visit the DPRK is around 4,000 to 4,800 thousand each year. Now when you compare North Korea’s tourist numbers to their immediate neighbours such as Japan, South Korea or China; there really isn’t a reason to give a comparison chart as North Korea would be a little tiny dot next to China’s 145 million, Japan’s 32 million or South Korea’s 17 million annual tourists.
This makes visiting North Korea that extra special and unique. For those who went further off the beaten path to be one of the very few that took the time, the money and the guts to visit the hermit kingdom now have something to boast about. Unfortunately, one key document is taken off you as you exit North Korea to re-enter China after your tour. I’m referring to your North Korean tourist visa.
How to prove you’ve been to North Korea
For those who have not yet been to North Korea, the DPRK tourist visa is a separate document that isn’t attached to your passport. It’s given to tourists before boarding their flight or jumping on the train to North Korea.
With our very own statistics we know that a high percentage of tourists heading into North Korea have not told their relatives, friends or colleagues about their trip. We also know that the same amount will want to cause waves on either their social media platforms or over banter about their trip to ‘Best Korea’ with photos and videos taken during their tour.
You may have a cheeky friend or stubborn colleague comment that your trip didn’t happen, or that your uploaded photos are fake. Let’s face it. Anyone with a computer and Photoshop can easily create an image. So how do you prove you’ve been to North Korea without using photos or videos?
Is YPT’s Rowan really at Panmunjom shaking hands with a North Korean solider or is this just a striking photo taken of a handsome chap adjusting his coat whilst on duty? It’s impossible to tell!
How to collect your visa or North Korean stamp in your passport?
There are multiple ways of gaining documental proof to keep with you and to show off to fellow travellers.
The first and most common one is applying for a DPRK visa at a North Korean embassy in your home country. A detailed list of North Korean embassies around the world can be found here. Before your next trip to North Korea, let us know you want the DPRK visa sticker in your passport and we can arrange your interview at your nearest North Korean embassy to have it attached. This way you can keep it when you depart from the DPRK. Solid evidence!
For those of you that don’t have a DPRK embassy in your home country, no need to fret, there is still a way to gain an official North Korean stamp in your passport that was simply impossible on your previous train or flight to Pyongyang.
Simply join us next time on our tours up to the northeast of North Korea where we cross either the Tumen-North Hamgyong province border or the Chinese-Rason border by land. Here, our YPT guides can request for a North Korean immigration stamp to be included into your passport by the North Korean immigration officers. It’s not always 100% guaranteed, but with enough sweet talk, golden handshakes, and smiles from the group, this can easily be achieved.
It’s even possible to have your North Korean stamp next to your South Korean stamp. No joke!
We’re expecting North Korean borders to reopen later in 2021. Our guides are always on standby for any questions you have in the meantime. Or stay tuned to our podcasts, zoom session or Google Hangouts for more inside stories and experiences on North Korea.
And that is how you prove you’ve been to North Korea!
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