Visiting Xian in Shaanxi Province in mid-March, Kim To-jun of the North’s General Bureau of Tourism, told Chinese tour operators, “Don’t worry. There’ll be no war on the Korean Peninsula, so send as many tourists as possible.”

The regime is expected to resume package tours in July via non-stop flights between Xian and Pyongyang. The route opened in July 2011 and the package tours started a year later.

A source speculated, “It seems that the North is trying to make money by assuring Chinese people that there is no danger of war, while the threats against South Korea are mostly for domestic political purposes.”