China permits passport-free visits to North Korea

Easing restrictions against the sanction-hit North Korea, China has allowed its tourists to visit the reclusive state without passports.
Chinese tourists can visit North Korea without a passport, thanks to a new tour package launched in northeast China's Liaoning Province, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Over the past three days, the programme has allowed tourists to travel from the border city of Dandong to have a half-day stay in the North's Sinuiju city.
They only need to apply for an entry permit in Dandong and go through border inspection in North Korea before starting the trip, the report quoted Dandong China International Travel Service, the organiser of the tour, as saying.

Visitors need to pay USD 52 for each trip and can travel around a "designated zone" measuring 30,000 square metres.
Quan Shunji, general manager of the travel agency said the zone will be expanded in the future, allowing it to receive 10,000 tourists a day during peak seasons.

Since the package was offered on July 9, some 1,000 Chinese have applied for entry permits, Quan said.
The announcement about passport-free visits to the North came as China denounced the US plan to deploy theTerminal High-Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system to counter threats from the Communist nation facing punitive international sanctions for its nuclear-weapon and ballistic-missile tests.

China has expressed strong dissatisfaction with and firm opposition to the decision, and has summoned the ambassadors of the US and South Korea to lodge its representations.
China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters in Beijing today that the deployment of the THAAD system will in no way help achieve the goal of denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and maintain peace and stability.
The deployment will damage strategic security interests of regional countries in northeast Asia - including China - and disturb the regional strategic balance, he said.
China, regarded as an ally of North Korea, implements UN sanctions against Pyongyang for continuing its nuclear and missile programme but has declined to implement US sanctions saying such measures must be routed through the UN.

Tensions have soared after North Korea's fourth nuclear test in January, followed by a series of missile launches.
It has also test-fired what is believed to be a submarine-launched ballistic missile on Saturday, a day after the THAAD announcement.