<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">North Korea has moved to further open up from strict pandemic-era isolation, with state media reporting Sunday that citizens living abroad have been allowed to reenter the country.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">State-run KCNA said that the State Emergency Epidemic Prevention Headquarters had announced that "citizens abroad have been allowed to return home".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Those returned will be put under proper medical observation at quarantine wards for a week," the report said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It added that the decision had been made "in reference to the eased worldwide pandemic situation."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">North Korea shut its borders in early 2020 in response to the coronavirus pandemic, but there have been increasing signals the country has moved towards reopening.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chinese and Russian officials attended a military parade in Pyongyang last month -- the first foreign dignitaries to visit the country in years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last week a delegation of athletes was allowed to attend a taekwondo competition in Kazakhstan, while state-run Air Koryo made its first international commercial flight in three years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The flight arrived Tuesday morning at Beijing's Capital Airport, with AFP reporters only seeing two North Koreans -- recognisable by their distinctive badges bearing the faces of former leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il -- come through the arrival gate. Neither spoke to media.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another Air Koryo flight bound for Pyongyang departed just after 1:00 pm, a tracking website showed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency published photos of a number of North Koreans lining up to check luggage for that flight.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Asked about the flights, China's foreign ministry said that it had approved restarting commercial air travel between Beijing and Pyongyang.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"During the summer and autumn flight season... the Chinese side approved flight plans for passengers such as the Pyongyang-Beijing and Beijing-Pyongyang routes of Air Koryo," foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing on Monday. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>