Can Foreigners Enter North Korea?

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Ah, North Korea, the Hermit Kingdom. Do you know who can enter, this mysterious, human-rights violating nation?

To start with, South Koreans definitely cannot enter North Korea. However, there are three options for South Koreans if they really want to step on North Korean soil. The first one is, to become the president or diplomat, or any some sort of high-official job in South Korea, then visit the North for peace talks. The second one, is to go to North of the North Korean border, and climb the Paekdu Mountain (백두산), the tallest in the Korean peninsula with being 2744 meters (9002 ft). The final option, is to become a tourist of the Mt. Kumgang Tourist city, with the beautiful views of Mt. Kumgang, bordering South Korea. However, due to the end of the friendly "Sunshine Policy" to North Korea in 2007, plus a North Korean explosives exploding the South Korean military ship, leaving 46 dead in 2010, AND 8 months later exploding a South Korean island REALLY close to the North, which killed both soldiers and civilians, made the South Korean government stopped Koreans from paying to visit the tourist area, which meant that for people with South Korean passports, the only way to see the North is very mere, since the new leader Kim Jung-un ripped the unofficial armistice signed by his grandfather in 1953 as well as showing off aggressive plans to invade the North, plus news says that Mt. Paekdu are showing signs that prove that it's going to blow up pretty soon.

Next, Americans and the people of the West. Even though there's a bunch of propaganda about the Americans, since South Korea banned the travel to North Korea and its tourist attractions, North Korea needed money, so at 2010 they let other people visit North Korea at times other than the huge Arirang Mass Games which cost around $1500 USD.  Did you know that the Rungrado May 1st stadium (릉라도 5월 1일 경기장), the Arirang Games is held, is the largest stadium in the world, with being able to hold 150,000 spectators?

Rungrado May 1st Stadium, tophdgallery.com (CC)

Anyways, American tourists can only enter North Korea via plane, not train or boat, as well as car. And recently, North Korean mobile services, in which all tourists had the right to enjoy, were banned from them. Also, the tourists can only stay in the "Foreigner-only" zones, so they can't see what the North Koreans are doing in the "North Koreans only" zones, where they see the children starving to death in the streets the regular activities of the peoples.

Technically, if you have Korean ethnicity but was born in another country so you were a naturalized citizen of a non-Korean nation, you can enter North Korea. South Koreans also acquire the right to travel there when they get citizenship from a nation that is not South Korea. However, be careful, because many Korean Americans got detained inside North Korea. Plus, an American got detained for leaving a bible at a club in Chongjin City. So, try to act like Chinese, the friendly communist brother of Korea- wait, that doesn't help, since North Korea's relations with the People's Republic of China are tightening, and the Korean language is not the Chinese, but it came from the same ancestral groups---- you get what I mean.

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