an agreement with the North Korean government to open up more areas to tourism, including Baekdu Mountain and Kaesong. Kaesong was opened to daily tours for South Korean and foreign tourists in December 2007; North Korea charged US $180 for a one-day trip. The city received several hundred tourists each week, mostly South Koreans. The tours to Kaesong were suspended in December 2008 due to a political conflict between North and South Korean relating to propaganda balloons. The balloons, filled with information critical of Kim Jong-il and the North Korean regime, were sent into North Korea from just south of the border in South Korea. When South Korea did not respond to North Korean demands to stop the propaganda balloons, North Korea suspended the Kaesong tours. The tours to Kaesong resumed in April 2010, but were again suspended in May 2010 following the ROKS Cheonan sinking. Tours from China In April 2010, the first tourist trains from Dandong, China brought visitors to North Korea for a four-day tour. Before that, the international train from Beijing to Pyongyang was used as a tourist train. In June 2011, Chinese citizens were allowed on a self-driven tour in North Korea for the first time. As of January 2013, tourists are now able to bring their own mobile phones into North Korea, although without a North Korean SIM card (which became available to foreigners) the phone will not be able to make or receive calls. Previously, foreigners had to surrender their phones at the border (or airport) before entering the country. The number of Chinese tourists visiting North Korea fell 70 percent from 2010 to 2011. One Chinese travel agency cited the limited number of packages and restrictions on where foreign tourists can travel as the main reasons for the lack of interest. Only the capital Pyongyang and Mount Kumgang are available on Chinese itineraries. Various places are accessible from the Chinese side, such as Namyang and monasteries in Chilbosan from Tumen, China. In 2011, a Tumen-Korean train service was scheduled to start. Though gambling is prohibited for North Korean citizens, two casinos exist in North Korea for the Chinese tourist market – the Imperial Hotel & Casino in Rason and the Pyongyang Casino in the Yanggakdo International Hotel in Pyongyang. In 2016, the North Korean government allowed Chinese tourists to stay in North Korea for a maximum of six months. Visa In principle,