For foreign travel agencies, the annual Pyongyang Marathon is apparently a good business opportunity.
They are promoting a variety of tour programs to the secretive communist nation in connection with the event. The next one will be held on April 10 next year.
Young Pioneer Tours, based in China, carried a related ad on its website.
“This very special Marathon tour offers tourists (the option) to not only spectate or compete in the marathon, but to also join in on the nation’s biggest celebration of President Kim Il-sung’s 104th birthday,” it said, referring to the North’s late founding leader.
The agency added that participants will also be able to visit “the must see sites in Pyongyang city” and the Demilitarized Zone, which separates the two Koreas.
A five-day tour package costs 995 euros (US$1,080).
Koryo Tours, also doing business in China, offers five different types of tour programs worth between 900-1860 euros.
“Don’t miss out on this rare opportunity to become one of the very few people in the world to have run the Pyongyang Marathon,” it said on its webpage.
The Pyongyang Marathon was launched in 1981 to mark the 69th birthday of Kim Il-sung, grandfather of the current leader Kim Jong-un.
The North first allowed foreigners to join the competition last year.
It plans to limit the number of foreign participants to 1,500 in next year’s event, according to Young Pioneer Tours. (Yonhap)
