Overwhelmingly NKs come to Russia for education 7,887. These are record numbers of North Koreans studying abroad.
Business numbers are beginning to ramp up with nearly 2000 business visits from NK to Russia. This, however is still far below the 2010’s when there were sustained levels of about 15,000 business visits from NK to Russia, per year.
https://www.nknews.org/2025/02/north-korean-arrivals-to-russia-mark-12-fold-yearly-increase-in-2024
The number of Russian travelers entering North Korea reached a 12-year high of 6,469. Highest recent levels were 2012, with 8314 visitors.
Tourism was number one, with almost 2,000 visitors, followed by 1,500 for business. 700 were for private reasons.
https://www.nknews.org/2025/02/north-korean-arrivals-to-russia-mark-12-fold-yearly-increase-in-2024
DPRK delegations visited various Russian universities to discuss nuclear science, joint training and student exchanges
North Korean educators inked multiple deals with universities all across Russia during a recent delegation visit, eyeing student exchanges and engineering technology, including in nuclear science.
Delegations came from Kim Il Sung University (KISU) led by President Kim Sung Chan and Kim Chaek University of Technology (KCUT) led by President Pak Ji Min. KCUT officials visited Moscow Power Engineering Institute (MPEI), touring departments related to energy, electrical infrastructure and atomic energy, according to a social media post from the Russian university. The KISU delegation toured Moscow State University’s (MSU) Chemistry Department and Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) and its School of Medicine and Life Sciences, where the two sides discussed prospects for collaboration in medicine and scientific research. The department’s acting chief Sergey Karlov stressed that his university has “all the necessary resources to support joint research and educational programs for North Korean chemistry students,” according to a Telegram post from the Russian University.
Previously, representatives of Blagoveschensk State Pedagogical University traveled to North Korea for Russian language workshops for 110 DPRK instructors in Pyongyang.
The NK’s General Administration of Civil Aviation also attended an aviation exhibition in Russia.
North Korea has reopened tourism in the special economic zone of its northeastern border city Rason to foreign tourists, the website of a China-based travel agency showed Friday.
“North Korea has reopened tourism in Rason, it’s Special Economic Zone in the northeast of the country, according to our local DPRK partners,” the website of Young Pioneer Tours, a travel company specializing in North Korea tours, said. DPRK stands for the official name of North Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“The official reopening is technically effective” from Thursday, it said, adding that this is only a “breaking story” and “things could change rapidly in the coming days.”
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2025/01/103_390602.html
“Rason, the oldest and largest of North Korea’s 29 economic development zones, has been central to the country’s push to attract foreign investment. It has one of North Korea’s first and biggest markets, was the site of the country’s first mobile network, and is the only place where North Korea legalised buying and selling homes in 2018, according to experts and North Korea’s government publications. Once a North Korean experiment in limited capitalism, the Rason Special Economic Zone appears to be the epicentre of the isolated country’s growing cooperation with Russia, experts say, including possible shipments of arms for the war in Ukraine.
In recent months, there have been clear signs that the area is poised for a comeback, with ships docking there for the first time since 2018, and satellite imagery suggesting a spike in trade from both the port and a rail line to Russia.
Although China – with its vastly larger economy and deeper historic ties with North Korea – might seem the obvious driver of a recovery in Rason, experts say the country’s deepening cooperation with Russia may make a more immediate impact.
“Now that North Korea and Russia are becoming very close against the backdrop of the Ukraine war, Russia might send more tourists to North Korea, which can reinvigorate tourism (in Rason),” said Jeong Eunlee, a North Korea economy expert at South Korea’s government-run Korea Institute for National Unification.
More at Reuters:
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/north-korean-special-economic-zone-poised-revival-new-russia-trade-2023-11-29/
