North Korea will reportedly ban foreign tourists from entering the nation by plane beginning on December tenth.

A tour agency official in Shenyang, China says this follows Pyongyang's ban in mid-October on foreign tourist groups entering the North by train.

But the official noted that business trips and cargo transport will continue as usual on land and through the air.

The official says the North institutes a similar ban near the end of each year ahead of its year-end state settlement of accounts. The ban is then lifted sometime in the following year.