But tourism to North Korea is contentious, especially as travellers have been allowed back before aid workers and most Western diplomats, including the UK's. Critics, including Joanna Hosaniak from the Citizens Alliance for North Korean Human Rights, argue these trips mainly benefit the regime.

Western tourists have returned to North Korea for the first time since the hermit kingdom closed its borders during the Covid crisis.

The secretive country closed its borders five years ago, shutting out aid workers, diplomats and foreign travellers, but last week the first Western tourists were allowed back in – this is what they s