China and North Korea have resumed passenger train service between the two countries after a six-year hiatus was enforced to curb the spread of the coronavirus in 2019, railway authorities and tour operators in China have told the AFP.
The first passenger train reached Pyongyang from Beijing on Thursday, marking the resumption. AFP quoted China Railway as saying that the first train will leave Beijing today, and it is headed to the North Korean capital Pangyong.
Giving further details of the operations, the China Railway has said that the K27 train will make a few stops, including at the port city of Tianjin, and then head northeast to Dandong, a Chinese city bordering North Korea.
Rowan Beard of the Young Pioneers Tours, a company specialising in North Korea Travel, added that the wagons holding passengers bound for Pangyong will be attached to another train there.
"Taking them across the border to the nearby North Korean city of Sinuiju," Beard said, adding that these wagons, as well as North Korean domestic carriages, would be attached to a new train that would then head to Pangyong.
The China Railway has told AFP that there would be a separate daily service between Dandong and Pongyong. Anyone with a valid visa will now be able to buy train tickets.
The travellers will include Chinese people working and studying in North Korea as well as North Koreans working, studying and visiting family abroad.
China Railway has maintained that trains will run in both directions between Beijing and Pyongyang every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
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Entry and exit procedures would be completed at the Dandong border crossing and at Sinuiju in North Korea, the China Railway added. Offline sale of tickets has also been initiated.
China is North Korea's largest trading partner and a vital source of diplomatic, economic and political support for the isolated nuclear state, AFP reported. Train journeys between the East Asian neighbours were halted in 2020 under strict border closures to prevent the coronavirus from spreading.
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