In late 2014, North Korea slammed closed its borders, stopping all foreign tourism into the country for fear of an Ebola outbreak on DPRK soil. Despite the fact that most (read: all) of its foreign officials had been nowhere near the Ebola-infected areas on the West African coast, any returning diplomats were subject to a 21-day quarantine and strict check-ups.
Well, now just a few short months after overexaggerated fear gripped the nation, North Korea is once again open for business! (Well, it's as open as it was before the Ebola outbreak, which means it's not particularly open at all.)
While you can't exactly hop on the next flight to Pyongyang, there are a number of tourism services that specialize in bringing foreigners to the Hermit Kingdom.
One of the biggest tourism events on the DPRK calendar, the Pyongyang marathon, was closed to all foreign runners two weeks ago. The North Korean government has yet to say whether the event will be rescheduled.
The Ebola travel ban started on October 24, and was the first ban of its kind since a 3-month tourism shut down in 2003 over fears of SARS.
It should be noted that people with West African passports, whether they've got Ebola or not (or have even been to their home countries since the outbreak) are still barred from entry into the country.
But for non-African tourists with a penchant for visiting totalitarian regimes, there's no time like the present! Visit now before another pandemic halfway across the globe shutters the country once again (looking at you, Disney Land measles).
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