North Korea has canceled its annual signature dance and gymnastic performances scheduled for this year, a Chinese tour operator said, amid continued quarantine measures against Ebola.

"We have received confirmation from our partners in Pyongyang that the Arirang Mass Games will not be taking place this year," Young Pioneer Tours, a China-based travel agency specialized in trips to the isolated North, said in a brief release posted on its website Saturday.

The Arirang Mass Games are highly choreographed shows where tens of thousands of performers stage a spectacular display of acrobatics, gymnastics, dances and flip-card mosaic animations.

Though the agency did not elaborate on reasons for the cancellation, the decision comes amid the North's strict quarantine measures against the Ebola epidemic.

Apparently in a move to prevent the deadly virus from spreading into the country, North Korea has barred foreign tourists from visiting the nation since last October.

"We have been working closely with our partners in North Korea in regards to when the current Ebola travel restriction will be lifted and tourism to the DPRK will resume as normal," the tour company said in a separate release. DPRK is the acronym of the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. 

Saying that it is expecting the borders "to reopen very soon within the coming weeks," the company said "other exciting and unique events" will be held this year in the North such as the Pyongyang Marathon in April and the huge celebrations later this year of the 70th anniversary of Liberation Day and Party Foundation Day.

After last taking place in 2013, the Arirang Mass Games were canceled last year without any official reasons, though observers speculate that it may have had to do with renovation work at the event venue the May Day Stadium, in Pyongyang, or possible preparations for new programs.

With aims to extol its leaders and the socialist system, Pyongyang staged the extravaganza for the first time in 2002 and the second one in 2005. After canceling it in 2006 due to severe flood damage, the North had held the show on an annual basis since 2007, attracting foreign tourists. (Yonhap)