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SCMP’s Asia desk

North Korea had abruptly cancelled the 2026 Pyongyang International Marathon less than a month before the race, its international partner said on Monday, raising fresh questions about the country’s cautious approach to reopening to foreign visitors.
Beijing-based Koryo Tours, which specialises in tours to the country, said it had received notice of the cancellation from the North Korean race organiser.
“This decision was communicated to us by the DPR Korea Athletics Association and has been confirmed as final,” it said on its website.
It also posted the official message confirming the cancellation.
“This [notice] officially informs you that we will cancel the 2026 Pyongyang International Marathon this year due to some reasons,” the statement read.

“Thank all the elite marathoners and amateur runners of the world who are interested in Pyongyang International Marathon in advance.”
Koryo Tours had announced three months ago that the marathon would be held on April 5, 10 days before the birth anniversary of the late North Korean founder Kim Il-sung.
It would have been the second consecutive year that the country opened its doors to foreign competitors after a long pandemic-era shutdown.
Last year, North Korea held its first Pyongyang Marathon since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Koryo Tours said that of the more than 500 participants who ran through the streets of the capital on April 6, about 200 were international amateur runners from more than 40 countries – making it one of the most diverse editions ever.
Marathon winners included racers from Ethiopia, Poland, Singapore, China and Russia.


This year’s last-minute cancellation showed that Pyongyang was taking “a much more cautious approach to foreign engagement”, said Chad O’Carroll, founder and CEO of NK News, an American site dedicated to North Korean news.
He said the timing could be linked to the US killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on February 28.
“North Korean security services might have judged that even though the risk of having 500 long-distance runners in the country would be small, in the current environment where paranoia about the leaders’ security is likely to be high, it was an intolerable action to take.”
North Korea briefly reopened its borders to foreigners last February, allowing visitors to tour Rason, the country’s first and largest special economic zone. However, it stopped tourism to all but Russians after two weeks.
The decision to cancel this year’s marathon “has been taken at a level above the organisers of the event itself”, according to Koryo Tours.

“The North Korean security services are populated at the highest echelons by very conservative officials who do not see the value of North Korean soft power,” Christopher Green, an assistant professor at Leiden University and International Crisis Group consultant, told NK News on Monday.
“They don’t see the utility of taking calculated risks that expose their society to more outside scrutiny, in order to acquire a little bit of soft power and slightly greater legitimacy on the world stage.”
Last year’s proliferation of content creators at the marathon may also have added to security fears, according to Green.
“It would not surprise me, for even a second, to learn that the security services found some of what went on at last year’s marathon – influencers making videos – and that that has given them sufficient concern [to] have decided to pull the plug on it this year,” he said.
“If the security services decide that shouldn’t happen, it doesn’t matter what the institutions planning and implementing that event think.”


North Korea cancels Pyongyang marathon weeks before race, with no reason given

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Will the US attack on Iran push North Korea even closer to Russia and China?

North Korea

Foreign runners take part in the Pyongyang marathon on April 6, 2025. Photo: Kyodo

Danish runner Claus Randrup poses for a selfie at the Pyongyang International Marathon on April 6, 2025. Photo: Claus Randrup

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (third left), wife Ri Sol-ju (left), and daughter Kim Ju-ae (second left) watch a performance commemorating International Women’s Day at the Pyongyang Gymnasium on Sunday. Photo: KCNA/AFP

Kim tests missile from new destroyer as North Korea draws lessons from Iran conflict

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un watches the test firing of a sea-to-surface strategic cruise missile on Wednesday. Photo: KCNA/AFP

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (right) takes part in destroyer Choe Hyon’s sea trials ahead of its commissioning on Tuesday. Photo: KCNA/AFP

New destroyer Choe Hyon sails with Kim Jong-un aboard on Tuesday. Photo: KCNA/AP

Kim Jong-un salutes troops during his inspection of destroyer Choe Hyon ahead of its commissioning at Nampo Shipyard in North Korea on Tuesday. Photo: KCNA/AFP

Confrontation or dialogue? You choose, North Korea’s Kim tells US

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un  and daughter Ju-ae attend a military parade to commemorate the Ninth Workers’ Party congress on Wednesday. Photo: KCNA/AFP

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (centre) attends the first meeting of the Political Bureau of the Ninth Worker’s Party Central Committee in Pyongyang on Wednesday. Photo: KCNA/AFP

Kim Jong-un (centre), wife Ri Sol-ju (right) and daughter Ju-ae (second right) arrive for a military parade at Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang on Wednesday. Photo: KCNA/AFP

Illustration: Craig Stephens

South Korea uneasy as US weighs moving air defences to Middle East

US and South Korean soldiers take part in a joint river-crossing exercise as part of the Freedom Shield military drills in March 2025. Photo: Getty Images 

Colonel Jang Do-young (left), public affairs director of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Colonel Ryan Donald, public affairs director of the United States Forces Korea, pose for a photo during a Freedom Shield press briefing on February 25. Photo: EPA

New launch vehicles for nuclear-capable short-range missiles are paraded through a Pyongyang street during a military ceremony on February 18. Photo: KCNA/AP

Mock launch tubes of Cheongung surface-to-air missile system are seen at Hanwha Aerospace factory in Changwon on November 21, 2024. Photo: AFP

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is seen aboard the country’s first 5,000-tonne multipurpose destroyer, the Choe Hyon, in waters near the western coastal city of Nampo on Wednesday. Photo: KCNA/KNS/dpa

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un watches the test firing of a sea-to-surface strategic cruise missile on Wednesday. Photo: KCNA/KNS/dpa

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The race had been set for April 5 and would have marked the second year since Pyongyang resumed the event after the pandemic


The race had been set for April 5 and would have marked the second year since Pyongyang resumed the event after the pandemic.


North Korea cancels Pyongyang marathon weeks before race, with no reason given

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The race had been set for April 5 and would have marked the second year since Pyongyang resumed the event after the pandemic

The race had been set for April 5 and would have marked the second year since Pyongyang resumed the event after the pandemic