My colleague Curtis passes along that Koryo Tours will be making available North Korea trips for US citizens in 2006.

They brought 150 of the total 190 US citizens attending the Arirang Mass Games in 2005, and North Korea will be repeating the games in 2006.

Tours are offered from Beijing. Scroll down to the bottom part of the page for details on US citizens visiting the DPRK. Personally I find visiting the country to be intriguing, it’s one of the most backward repressive regimes on the planet and international exchange and visits can only serve to open it up to the rest of the world and benefit its people. I’m also not concerned about the government earning foreign currency from visitors, to some extent even that can only serve to help a people while at the same time undermining its government.

This Flyertalk thread is a fascinating trip report from earlier in 2005. Odd that North Korea’s national carrier offers two classes of service…