pay hundreds even thousands of dollars to go on private excursions undeterred by fiery rhetoric even threats of a looming nuclear war. in a quiet corner of the beijing airport check-in time for the di s only flight to pyongyang. it s the usual crowd. handful of north koreans and dozens of foreigners, mainly tourist. tour companies estimate around 5,000 western tourist come to north korea each year including about 1,000 americans. what is this here? the tourism vietnama. nicholas burkehead is an armory veteran from virginia. he is making this trip sooner than expected. originally i planned to read the language books and go next year. but i heard it would be banned next month so i thought i would get in while i could. beginning september 1, americans can t visit north korea as tourists. the u.s. state department set a