[Courtesy of Koryo Tours]
North Korea has canceled its beer festival, which was to take place in its capital in August, a tour company said, suggesting the cancellation may have been related to a drought that battered the Korean peninsula this spring.
The beer festival aimed at showcasing and promoting North Korea's local brew Taedonggangs reportedly attracted about 45,000 participants in its inaugural run last year. This year's festival was due to take place throughout the month of August.
"Sadly today we have been informed that the 2017 Pyongyang Beer Festival has been canceled," Koryo Tours, a Beijing-based travel company specializing in group and independent tourism to North Korea, said on its website.
"The reason for the cancellation is unclear and we don't expect full information to be forthcoming but it is possibly down to the ongoing drought in the country that has caused a great deal of trouble," it said.
The Korean peninsula has been hit by natural disasters such as drought, heat waves and heavy downpours.
The cancellation came after Washington announced its decision to ban its citizens from traveling to North Korea following the shocking death of American college student Otto Warmbier who was arrested in January last year for stealing a political propaganda sign from a Pyongyang hotel and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.
Warmbier returned to his Ohio home in a coma last month but died several days later. Three more are still detained in the North, all of them Korean-Americans.
reporter
임장원
cwlim34@ajunews.com
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