The Young Pioneer Tours, which offers 'destinations your mother would rather you stay away from', made headlines following the arrest of client Otto Warmbier in North Korea
A BRITISH travel agent organises stag weekends in danger zones such as North Korea, Iraq and nuclear wasteland Chernobyl.
London-born Gareth Johnson, 37, runs alternative tour firm Young Pioneer Tours (YPT) from his base in Yangshuo, southwest China.
On its website, the company offers “destinations your mother would rather you stay away from” at budget prices.
Johnson’s speciality is North Korea and he claims to have “love for the people and culture” of the repressive country known for its death camps and public executions.
He even owns a Pyongyang-themed pub, named the DMZ bar, in Yangshuo, which has the motto "Get s***faced the North Korean way."
The YPT came to worldwide attention following the 2016 arrest of American tourist Otto Warmbier in North Korea who went to the rogue state with the travel company.
Following the death of Warmbier in 2017, his father Fred slammed Johnson’s firm saying they “duped” his son and “lured” him with “slick” adverts.
But despite the controversy, the YPT still offers an array of unconventional holiday packages.
On the tour of Chernobyl, Ukraine, the firm boasts that clients will visit illegal areas in Pripyat - the ghost town of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
The website reads: “Our contacts in Pripyat mean, we can usually sneak in some secret sites that we are not allowed to blog about."
The day in nuclear hell finishes like most of their tours – with a pub crawl sampling which the firm bills as “10 places to drink in before you die.”
The website says: “Be sure to try the shot requiring you to wear a straightjacket and be set on fire.”
Another hazardous destinations is Iraqi Kurdistan, which the company brags is at the forefront of the fight with ISIS.
Johnson’s company also offers trips to lawless states, calling them unrecognised countries, such as Somaliland - officially part of Somalia - and Socotra, a Yemeni island.
Johnson is often seen drinking heavily in pictures leading to accusations that the YPT offers 18-30s-style breaks in danger zones.
There have been reports from previous YPT customers of guides being drunk including a boozed-up Johnson falling out of a North Korean train and breaking his leg.
One tourist was so drunk that he did a handstand in front of Kumsusan, the mausoleum where North Korea’s revered leaders - Kim il-sung and Kim jong-il - are buried.
The Brit has also launched another travel firm, Gross Negligence Tours (GN Tours), which offers sleazy holidays in south east Asia.
GN Tours promises "beaches, babes, bullets and booze", with private "anything goes" pool bashes, hosted by local hostesses where you can buy "sexy dancers."
Online, it boasts of partying with ladyboys in Thailand and watching brutal cockfighting and dwarf-fighting in the Philippines capital Manilla.
On the debauched trips, clients go shoot rocket launchers, bazookas, AK47 machine guns and attend depraved cock fighting shows.
The company says: “In Manila, they have teams of lady boys ‘who are some of the finest available and all of which like to have the best time possible."
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