North Korea Solo Female Travel Safety Tips and Advice

On this page you will find first-hand, unbiased, and real safety tips, advice and reviews from women traveling solo, submitted directly from their personal experiences in the country.

Their opinions are unfiltered and submitted independently as part of the Solo Female Travel Safety Index, a ranking of 210 countries and regions based on how safe they are for women traveling solo.

The safety scores range from 1 to 4 with 1 being the safest and 4 being the most dangerous for solo female travelers.

You don’t need to login to read the below reviews. But do sign up or login to share your solo travel experiences, country safety rating and comments.

North Korea Country data

We have compiled a few data points below that can help you better understand North Korea and have more context when thinking about travel safety.

Official country name: Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Etymology: Derived from the Chinese name for Goryeo, which was the Korean dynasty that united the peninsula in the 10th century A.D. The North Korean name "Choson" means "[Land of the] Morning Calm".

Capital: Pyongyang.

Independence / foundation: Korea became the object of intense imperialistic rivalry between the Chinese (its traditional benefactor), Japanese, and Russian empires in the latter half of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Following the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), Korea was occupied by Imperial Japan. In 1910, Japan formally annexed the entire peninsula. After World War II, in 1945, Korea was split with the northern half coming under Soviet-sponsored communist control.

Population: 26 million.

Currency: North Korean Won (KPW)
1 USD = 900 KPW
1 EUR = 977 KPW

Time zone: UTC+9

Languages spoken: Korean.

Religions: Traditionally Buddhist and Confucian, some Christian and syncretic Chondogyo (Religion of the Heavenly Way). Note: autonomous religious activities now almost nonexistent; government-sponsored religious groups exist to provide illusion of religious freedom.

Climate: Temperate, with rainfall concentrated in the summer. Long, bitter winters.

Real GDP (ppp – purchasing power parity): $40 billion.

Real GDP per capita (ppp): $1,700.

Main airports: Pyongyang Sunan International Airport.

World heritage sites in North Korea

There are over 1,100 world heritage sites spread across more than 165 countries. New ones are added every year, and some may be removed from the list for various reasons.

Number of UNESCO listed sites: 2.

Top world heritage sites:

- Complex of Koguryo Tombs.
- Historic Monuments and Sites in Kaesong.

Interesting facts about North Korea

- North Korea is a dictatorship and single-party state following the official state ideology of “Juche” or “national self-reliance”. Kim Jong-un is the current and third supreme leader in the Kim dynasty. Since independence, North Korea has remained isolated and largely self-sufficient.

- North Korea has the biggest military face-off on the planet. The 4km-wide, 240km-long buffer called the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separates North Korea from the South. The two countries are officially still at war with each other as no peace agreement was ever signed. The contry also has the 4th largest army in the world only after China, India and the US which are orders of magnitude larger than North Korea.

- The country is home to the largest stadium in the world. The Rungrado 1st of May Stadium in Pyongyang has a capacity of 150,000.

- North Korea has a “three generations of punishment” rule. It states that if one person is found guilty of a crime and sent to a prison camp, so too will their family and two subsequent generations born at the camp must remain there for life.

- You cannot visit North Korea independently and must go on an organised and supervised tour with at least two guides who will watch you and each other for the duration of the trip. Visitors can only stay in certain hotels and must surrender their passports to the guides upon arrival. A permit has to be processed in advance and no stamp will be placed on the passport. After the death of a 17-year old student, American passport holders cannot use their passport to enter North Korea.

Further reading: https://www.onceinalifetimejourney.com/once-in-a-lifetime-journeys/asia/25-things-you-dint-know-about-north-korea/

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North Korea Travel tips

More about North Korea on Solo Female Travelers

Coming soon.

Did you spot any errors? We do our best to keep this information updated and accurate, but things change. If you saw anything that is not right, let us know so we can fix it: [email protected].

About the Solo Female Travel Safety Index

Safety matters to solo female travelers, you told us so in our annual Solo Female Travel Survey, where year after year, women prove that this is their most important concern when traveling solo.

We wanted to do something about it, so we built these country-specific pages where you can find reviews and scores for 7 key variables affecting the safety of women traveling solo.

How to use the Safety Index

On this page, you will find the country score and the personal opinions on safety of other women traveling solo.

You can sort the comments by:

• The level of experience traveling solo of the reviewer (beginner = <5 trips solo, Intermediate = 5 to 10 trips solo, Experienced = >10 trips solo).
• The age of the traveler.
• Whether they are a visitor or local.
• The date they were posted.

The safety scores range from 1 to 4 with 1 being the safest and 4 being the most dangerous for solo female travelers. 

Thus, the lower the score, the safer the country.

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Looking for more safety resources?

This entire website is devoted to helping women travel solo. Check out the links below to learn more:

Solo Female Travel Stats: Results from the the largest, most comprehensive and only global research study on solo female travel trends, preferences and behaviors published.

Thanks to Jacobo Vilella for creating the Solo Female Travelers Safety Index ❤️