Travel from North to South Korea..problems?
 

I will be traveling to North Korea next month on a tour...and will be visiting my friend in Seoul at the tail end of my trip.

I know it's not possible to cross the DMZ, so when I land back in Beijing from Pyongyang I will connect to an onward flight to Seoul.

My question is, will the South Korean immigration give me any problems as to why I have two sets of Chinese entry/exit stamps and/or if they know I've been to the DPRK?

Anyone have or heard any experiences regarding this?

Thanks

I don't think the DPRK spies and special operations forces sleeper cells in South Korea are that obvious. So you should have a pretty smooth entry. ;)

The DPRK does not stamp passports, and there's no way for the ROK to know where you flew to with those Chinese exit stamps. In my (limited) experience, passport inspections at Seoul tend to be cursory at best anyway.

I know someone who visited the DPRK and then went back to work in the RoK. You'll have no problems.

I have been in north Korea a while back (via PEK) and entered South Korea with the same passport several times after that. No problem at all.

Can you visit NK with a SK residency visa?

Not to Hijack your threat, but I would encourage anyone considering visiting North Korea to think about how your tourist dollars benefit the regime there. Just a thought.

On the other hand, hard currency earned from tourism is one less reason for nuclear material exports to shady customers.

Appreciate the responses! Glad to hear it shouldn't cause many problems going from the DPRK to the ROK.

And about the tourist dollars...I didn't think about that..but I can only hope it isn't going towards anything negative...

I don't think there's any positive to supporting the N Korean government and it's impossible no to.

Also, such travel, if undertaken outside of say an academic exchange, will almost certainly disqualify the traveler from subsequently obtaining a government security clearance anytime soon, if that sort of thing may matter for professional reasons.

:(

That's not entirely true. It depends on where your DPRK visa is issued, oddly. If it's issued from the DPRK embassy in Beijing, it's on a piece of paper and not in your passport. If it's issued by the DPRK embassy in London, however, it's put in your passport. DPRK immigration will stamp your visa, wherever it is.

I was in DPRK in late August and ROK two weeks later. I didn't have any problem getting into ROK and I don't think ROK immigration would have any problem with you having been in DPRK.

As far as security clearances go, as the U.S. doesn't restrict travel or spending by U.S. citizens in DPRK (unlike the policy towards Cuban travel), I don't think traveling to DPRK would necessarily disqualify you from a security clearance (at least that's what I'm counting on).