Dandong eager for cross-border travel boom as NK tensions ease

China's border with North Korea in Dandong, Liaoning Province, is expected to embrace an increasing number of tourists, thanks to the eased tension on the Korean Peninsula, an official from the local tourism bureau said on Tuesday.

"The number of tourists going to North Korea through Dandong plummeted in the past two months," said the official, surnamed Meng, declining to disclose official statistics.

The predicted boom is also confirmed by local travel agencies. "We haven't received tourists for a long time since early April and we are expecting a surge in the number as the situation on the peninsula is getting better," an anonymous staff member from the Golden Bridge Travel Agency in Dandong told the Global Times.

He said his agency has sent two one-day tourist groups and one four-day group on Tuesday, the first batch since April 10. Local agencies were reported to have received a notice on April 10, asking them to halt their services to North Korea.

Several agencies contacted by the Global Times said they received another notice, asking them to reopen the service to travelers from Tuesday.

However, the issuance of this notice was refuted by local officials. "Agencies made the decision spontaneously," Meng told the Global Times, explaining that the suspension was due to intensified tension and the cold weather.

Tourists can participate in a one-day tour to Sinuiju, the North Korean city on the other side of the Yalu River, or a four-day tour to places including Pyongyang and Panmunjom at the border with South Korea.

Trade remains unaffected by the tension. The Global Times saw dozens of trucks transporting goods and commodities cross the Yalu River Bridge on Tuesday.

North Korea dispatched its special envoy Choe Ryong-hae to Beijing who held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday, a move believed to be aimed at improving bilateral relations, amid the latest intensified tension after the North's third nuclear test in February and the fresh sanctions imposed by the UN.