North Korea has dropped coronavirus pandemic regulations that prohibited citizens stranded abroad from returning to the country.
North Korean "citizens abroad have been allowed to return home," state-controlled media reported on Sunday, adding that the decision was made due to "the eased worldwide pandemic situation."
"Those returned will be put under proper medical observation at quarantine wards for a week," the state media report said.
How many people are affected remained unclear. Observers in South Korea believe that more North Korean diplomats, workers and students will now make their way home.
North Korea is largely isolated in international affairs and access to the outside world is tightly controlled by the state.
In recent days, the country's state-owned airline Air Koryo had resumed using its aircraft for scheduled international flights and had allowed passenger flights to China and Russia.
The South Korean news agency Yonhap reported from Beijing on Tuesday that numerous North Koreans had queued at the Air Koryo check-in counter at the airport in the Chinese capital for a flight back to Pyongyang.
North Korea's communist leadership completely closed the country's borders at the beginning of 2020 because of the pandemic.
Although the North Korean government had announced a relaxation of its "maximum virus prevention system" a year ago, the country's borders have remained largely closed, with the exception of freight trains crossing the border with China.
