A group of foreign tourists is scheduled to arrive in North Korea next week as the reclusive North reopened its doors to visitors after nearly five months due to fears over the spread of the deadly Ebola virus, a Beijing-based tour company said Wednesday.

The months-long travel restriction, which banned foreign tourists from visiting North Korea and imposed a strict 21-day quarantine on all people, including diplomats, entering the country, was lifted earlier this week.

Beijing-based Koryo Tours, which takes about 2,500 Western tourists to North Korea a year, said the first group of foreign tourists will arrive in Pyongyang on March 14.

"With the North Korean border now open once more, Koryo Tours is pleased to have applied for its first trip to the country this year with a tour group now scheduled to arrive in Pyongyang on Saturday, 14 March," the company said in a statement.

Before lifting the travel restriction, North Korea barred foreigners from taking part in an international marathon set to be held in Pyongyang on April 12. So far, foreigners were still banned from the marathon, Koryo Tours said.

"At this stage, the information we have is that the Pyongyang Marathon on 12 April remains closed to foreign amateurs," it said.

Under international sanctions over nuclear and missile ambitions, North Korea has promoted tourism as a source of earning much-needed hard currency.

North Korea's frantic measures against Ebola appear to highlight concerns that it could pose a direct threat to the regime's survival if the virus crossed into the North, South Korea's spy agency told lawmakers last month.

It is not the first time that North Korea has closed its borders because of a deadly disease. In 2003, the North closed its borders for several months due to the spread of the SARS virus. (Yonhap)