U.S. travel ban hits foreign attendance figures for North Korea marathon

SEOUL (Reuters) - Described as North Korea's "biggest hit of the year," next month's Pyongyang Marathon is expected to have half as many foreign participants as last year, tour operators say, as political tensions and a ban on U.S. visitors take their toll.

International tourism to North Korea dropped last year as tension increased over the county's testing and development of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions.