• 80 North Korean taekwondo competitors and officials visited Beijing for the first time since 2020.
• North Korea restarted freight rail operations with China in September 2022.
• North Korea still has several restrictions in place, including the ability for guards to shoot any intruder.

Around 80 male and female North Korean taekwondo competitors and officials were passing via Beijing for the first time given that the nation shut its borders in the early months of 2020 owing to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The team was slated to participate in the World Championships of the International Taekwon-do Federation in Kazakhstan.

Traveling Delegation

Since the pandemic started, North Korea has restricted air travel and connectivity, and the majority of its 26 million citizens lack access to immunizations, fundamental healthcare, and information sharing.

North Korea restarted freight rail operations with China, its main trading partner and economic artery, in September 2022. The intelligence agency of South Korea has informed lawmakers that North Korea is getting ready to gradually reopen its border to boost its faltering economy.

According to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, the country’s economy would contract annually between 2020 and 2022. Last year, the GDP was 12% lower than in 2016.

Volker Türk, the U.N. rights chief, issued a warning that North Korea was ramping up its persecution and that people were growing more desperate as a result of this apparent resume of travel.

Türk added that North Korea still has several restrictions in place, including the ability for guards to shoot any intruder who approaches the border and the continued exclusion of nearly all foreigners, including U.N. employees.