Korean State Railway

Built World

Operating the North Korean leg of the resumed Beijing-Pyongyang train

North Korea sealed its borders on January 23, 2020, before most countries had heard of COVID-19. For six years, the country operated in near-total isolation — trade with China collapsed by 96%, food availability dropped to levels not seen since the famine that killed hundreds of thousands in the 1990s, and not a single foreign tourist set foot in the country for four years. On March 12, 2026, a passenger train departed Beijing for Pyongyang for the first time since that closure, carrying diplomats and businesspeople in just two carriages on a 25-hour journey through the border city of Dandong. Eighteen days later, on March 30, Air China resumed direct flights between Beijing and Pyongyang — the first commercial air service between the two capitals since January 2020. Both services operate under strict restrictions: train passengers must hold business visas, and air travelers are limited to those with official or special-purpose authorization.

Updated Mar 30