Additionally, there are occasional tours and group travel which consist of Americans via train or plane from China, some with temporary lodging and stay.
On September 17, 1996, The New York Times reported the possible presence of American POWs in North Korea, citing declassified documents.
The documents showed that the U.S. Defense Department knew in December 1953 that "more than 900 American troops were alive at the end of the war but were never released by the North Koreans".
The Pentagon did not confirm the report, saying it had no clear evidence that any Americans were being held against their will in North Korea but pledged to continue to investigate accounts of defectors and others who said they had seen American prisoners there.
[1] Operation Big Switch, the exchange of remaining prisoners of war, commenced in early August 1953 and lasted into December.