'Millions of Tourists' Visited N.Korea This Year

The North Korean regime has claimed that several millions of foreign tourists have visited the isolated country this year.

Kim Chun-hui, the chief of the North's State General Bureau of Tourist Guidance, made the claim in an interview with the Minju Choson, a state-run newspaper, on Thursday.

"In the past, only a small number of foreign tourists arrived during off-peak seasons, but this year many foreign tourists have visited [North Korea] since early March," she said.

Citing a series of summits with South Korea and the U.S. and leader Kim Jong-un's visits to China and Russia last year, she continued, "Tour of [North Korea] became more popular than before. An unprecedented number of foreign tourists have arrived and their most popular destinations have been Pyongyang, Kaesong, and Mt. Myohyang resort."

The North is feverishly developing resorts to attract more, mostly Chinese tourists to offset international sanctions.