Fuel price surge strips North Koreans of intercity bus connections

Rising fuel prices in North Korea are forcing state-run long-distance bus services to cut or cancel routes, significantly worsening intercity travel conditions across the country.

According to a Daily NK source in North Pyongan province, privately operated revenue buses — state-sanctioned vehicles that generate income for their operating units — attached to the provincial long-distance passenger transport office have been scaling back or eliminating long-distance routes in Unsan county and other areas since the start of the month. The result is a sharp decline in the direct intercity connections that county-level travelers had come to rely on.

“The transport sector handling intercity travel is the first to take the hit when fuel prices rise,” the source said. “Bus operators are finding the cost of fuel increasingly hard to bear, and long-distance routes are the first to go.”

Routes from Unsan county to major cities including Sinuiju, Sariwon in North Hwanghae province, Wonsan in Kangwon province, and Hamhung in South Hamgyong province had been running as frequently as once a day or as infrequently as twice a week. Those services have now been reduced or suspended entirely, the source said. Shorter routes connecting Unsan to nearby areas such as Hyangsam county, Kujang county, and Kaechon city in South Pyongan province remain in operation for the time being.

Travelers forced back to multi-leg journeys

The source attributed the cutbacks to a chain reaction set off by rising fuel costs. As operating costs climbed, bus fares rose in turn. Higher fares drove down ridership, making long-distance routes economically unviable for the transport offices that run them.

“Long-distance routes depend on guaranteed passenger numbers,” the source said. “With fewer riders and higher fuel costs, the long-distance passenger transport offices have no choice but to pull the vehicles.”

As a result, North Koreans needing to travel long distances are reverting to an older method of moving in stages, boarding a series of shorter-haul buses and transferring at intermediate stops along the way. That approach had largely fallen out of use after direct long-distance routes expanded in recent years.

The return to multi-leg travel has drawn frustration from people with unavoidable reason to travel. Journey times have increased substantially, and stopovers along the route add lodging and meal costs on top of the already higher fares.

The source noted that those who had grown accustomed to the convenience of direct routes are feeling the change most acutely. “People who experienced that convenience once feel the loss of it more sharply,” the source said, adding that complaints about journeys now taking several days again, as they once did, have become common.

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