orth Korea Allows U.S. Tourists for First Time in Three Years Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea will welcome U.S. tourists for the first time in three years next month to attend celebrations marking 60 years of independence and visit relics of the Korean War, Koryo Tours said. North Korea agreed to allow as many as 100 U.S. citizens to visit on four-day visas from Oct. 1, Koryo Tours' Simon Cockerell said. The tours will take in the Mass Games, a choreographed gymnastic and dance performance with a cast of 100,000, the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea, a museum dedicated to the Korean War and a U.S. spy ship, the USS Pueblo, Koryo said. The approval, following similar tours in 1995 and 2002, comes after the U.S. and North Korea signed a security and aid accord aimed at removing nuclear weapons from the peninsular. Relations soured in 2002 when U.S. officials said North Korea was developing nuclear arms in breach of a 1994 agreement. ``We have a standing request to take U.S. tourists into North Korea,'' said Cockerell of Beijing-based Koryo, which has been running tours into North Korea for 13 years. ``We just heard this week.'' As the U.S. doesn't have diplomatic relations with North Korea, tourists will have to apply for visas at Pyongyang's embassy in Beijing or London, Koryo said in a release. Travelers will have to provide resumes and letters from their employers guaranteeing their work status, said the agency. North Korea tightly controls access to the country, with most South Korean and U.S. visitors barred from visiting the capital Pyongyang and journalists from other countries prohibited unless on specially arranged tours. U.S. armed forces fought alongside South Korean soldiers during the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice agreement rather than a full peace treaty. Nuclear weapons North Korea this week said the U.S. wants to use nuclear weapons to ``crush us to death'' after the regime removes its arms under a six-nation agreement signed Sept. 19. ``It's easy to see the true intention of the U.S. in the six- party talks,'' the official Korea Central News Agency reported, citing a commentary in the Rodong Sinmun newspaper. ``In one word it wants to disarm us and crush us to death with its nuclear weapons. We won't be affected by any nuclear threat.'' The two nations, along with China, Japan, South Korea and Russia, Sept. 19 signed the accord that commits North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons in return for security guarantees from the U.S. and energy aid from all five nations. The U.S. in return promised never to attack the North and affirmed it had no nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsular.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Foxwell in Seoul at sfoxwell@bloomberg.net.