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North Korean marathon cancellation signals state's security concerns

Published: 10 Mar. 2026, 14:05

Runners take part in the Pyongyang International Marathon in Pyongyang, North Korea, on April 6, 2025. [NEWS1]

North Korea has abruptly canceled the Pyongyang International Marathon, fueling speculation that the state is tightening internal control amid mounting regional uncertainty surrounding the Iran war.

The decision is striking because Pyongyang scrapped one of its best-known foreign currency earning events even after registration had been completed. The race had also been closely watched as a possible signal that North Korea was preparing to expand foreign tourism, a sector Kim Jong-un has repeatedly promoted.

Koryo Tours, a North Korea travel agency and the official exclusive partner of the Pyongyang International Marathon, posted on its website Monday that it had been contacted by the secretary general of the DPR Korea Athletics Association.

“Koryo Tours, official partners of the Pyongyang Marathon, regret to inform participants that the 2026 Pyongyang International Marathon will not take place this year.” the travel agency said on its website. “This decision was communicated to us by the DPR Korea Athletics Association and has been confirmed as final.

“We understand that this decision has been made at a level above the organizers of the event itself. We recognize that this announcement will be disappointing to many runners who had already registered or were planning to participate in the event."

The remarks suggest the decision was made at the level of the North Korean authorities rather than by the marathon organizers themselves.

Runners take part in the Pyongyang International Marathon in Pyongyang, North Korea, on April 6, 2025. [AP/YONHAP]

Held since 1981 to mark April 15 — the birthday of North Korea founder Kim Il-sung, celebrated as the national holiday known as the Day of the Sun — the Pyongyang International Marathon is considered one of the country’s iconic foreign-currency earners.

Because Kim has repeatedly stressed the need to foster the tourism industry, onlookers had wagered that North Korea would use this year’s event to reopen its borders and actively attract foreign tourists.

In fact, Koryo Tours posted on social media in December last year that all 500 available spots sold out in less than five hours after registration for the Pyongyang International Marathon opened.

Some even anticipated that North Korea could roll out additional tourism packages linked to its east coast tourism belt, including the Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Area in Kangwon Province and Yombunjin Coastal Park in Kyongsong County, North Hamgyong Province.

"Given the abundance of beautiful East Sea scenic spots, including Mount Kumgang, Mount Chilbo, Majon, Kumya, Riwon and Yeombunjin, we must maintain a policy of focusing on rationally utilizing the abundant coastal tourism resources in the tourism sector going forward,” said Kim Jong-un during his on-site inspection of Wonsan-Kalma in July 2024.

Beijing-based North Korea tourism agency Koryo Tours website's post announcing the cancellation of the 2026 Pyongyang International Marathon [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Experts say North Korea likely canceled the race out of concern over the impact foreign tourists could have on regime control as the Iran war drags on.

From Pyongyang’s perspective, controlling foreign tourists, who tend to be relatively free-spirited, may be directly tied to regime security.

Because tourists widely use social media, they could share North Korea’s poor living conditions in real time or communicate with residents about sensitive outside issues such as the Iran war, potentially undermining regime control. North Korea had already shut down a tourism program for Western visitors after just three weeks in early last year.

Moreover, North Korea is already reacting sensitively after the United States launched a preemptive strike on Iran. Through state media, Pyongyang criticized the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran in a March 1 statement by a Foreign Ministry spokesperson, but it has not even mentioned the death of Iran’s former supreme leader, Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei.

Pyongyang appears to be controlling such information out of concern that telling residents a supreme leader was eliminated by a single U.S. strike could unsettle them.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend a dinner hosted by Xi in Beijing on Sept. 6, 2025, in this screengrab from the state-run Korean Central Television. [YONHAP]

Some analysts also say the summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump, scheduled to be held in Beijing from March 31 to April 2, may have partly influenced the decision.

With a major diplomatic event set to take place in China, Pyongyang may have decided to focus on its response. Trump also holds the key to Kim’s long-held goal of gaining recognition as a nuclear-armed state. North Korea may also be factoring in the possibility that Trump could again extend an overture.

“It was a strategic choice aimed at focusing on internal control and diplomatic issues at a time when President Trump had even spoken of an uprising by the Iranian people,” said Lee Byung-chul, a professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University. “For the time being, North Korea is likely to keep a close eye on the situation in Iran while weighing whether to sit down with Trump.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY CHUNG YEONG-GYO [[email protected]]