Korean State Railway

Built World

Operating the North Korean leg of the resumed Beijing-Pyongyang train

North Korea sealed its borders on January 23, 2020, before most countries had heard of COVID-19. For six years, the country operated in near-total isolation — trade with China collapsed by 96%, food availability dropped to levels not seen since the famine that killed hundreds of thousands in the 1990s, and not a single foreign tourist set foot in the country for four years. On March 12, 2026, a passenger train will depart Beijing for Pyongyang for the first time since that closure, carrying diplomats and businesspeople in just two carriages on a 25-hour journey through the border city of Dandong.

Updated Mar 10