Official guides assigned to watch over tourists in North Korea are giving visitors more leeway to see the country on their own.

In the week that the New York Philharmonic played in Pyongyang, the capital of the world's most secretive communist state, the leading UK tour operator offering trips to North Korea reported a relaxed attitude towards tourists.

Carl Meadows, tour manager at Regent Holidays, which has run trips there since 1985, said: “There does seem to be a significant thawing of relations in Pyongyang. Even three years ago you were very restricted about where you could go without a guide: you wouldn't be able to get three feet away from them. But I visited last September and they were not keeping such a watchful eye.”

Regent Holidays had an increase in calls from people wanting to book trips this week - attributed to the spotlight being on North Korea after the concert in which The Star-Spangled Banner and Gershwin were played. Last year, the company sent a hundred tourists, but it expects this to rise to 150. Bales and Explore are two other British operators offering breaks. A spokesman for Bales, which began trips last year, said that it had 30 bookings for this year. Only 1,500-2,000 people visit North Korea annually from Western countries.

Human rights groups believe that there are as many as 200,000 political prisoners held under Kim

Jong Il's regime. Meadows said: “Tourism helps to open up the country, and the money spent by tourists has a trickle-down effect.” In a further “thawing” of relations between North Korea and the West, the regime has invited Eric Clapton to perform in a concert in Pyongyang. Asked whether he could have imagined this happening three years ago, Meadows said: “No way - and I can't imagine it now.”

Details: Regent (www.regent-holidays.co.uk), Bales (www.balesworldwide.com), Explore (www.explore.co.uk)

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