BEIJING, Aug 23 (AFP) - North Korea has stopped allowing some tour groups from China to visit the country, state media reported Monday, suggesting that domestic politics were behind the move.
The North Korean national tourism bureau issued a notice informing Chinese authorities in Northeastern Liaoning province, which borders North Korea, that it would stop receiving tourists from China due to "domestic circumstances," the Legal Evening News said, citing North Korean media.
The report quoted analyses in Japanese media as saying that "important political activities" near the North Korean National Day on September 9 might be responsible for the ban.
A tour operator in the border town of Dandong said North Korea has stopped issuing visas for four-day tours, but is still allowing Chinese tourists to travel there on one-day visits.
Ji Kai, a staff member at the Beifang travel agent, said the quota for four-day tours this month had been filled but his company arranges for an average of 100 Chinese tourists to visit North Korea on day trips, which do not require a visa.
Ji said he did not know when North Korea would resume issuing tourist visas.
A spokesman at the North Korean embassy`s visa section in Beijing said he was not aware of the news.
North Korea claimed Monday that hostile US policy has made it impossible for it to attend six-nation working-level talks on the Korean peninsula`s nuclear crisis, which had been scheduled for August but have yet to materialise.