North Korea's state tourist body will open an official Japanese-language Web site in a bid to attract more tourists to the country ahead of a series of commemorative events scheduled for this year, officials of a Japanese travel agency said Saturday.
The Web site of the State General Bureau of Tourism -- www.dprknta.com/ -- will be officially opened in the middle of this month and provide travel information and pictures, the officials said.
The Web site will be the communist country's second official site. The first one was the DPRKorea Infobank Web site -- www.dprkorea.com/ -- opened in 1999 in Beijing by the Pan-Pacific Economic Development Association of Korean Nationals.
The Japanese travel agency was given the task of creating the travel bureau's Web site late last year because the bureau was unable to do so itself, the officials said.
A Japanese information technology expert privy to North Korean affairs said the Web site aims to liven up North Korea's upcoming commemoration of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's birthday in February and the 90th anniversary of the birth of the late Kim Il Sung in April.