Some Chinese tour operators have halted travel to North Korea on urging from local authorities and rising safety concerns as Pyongyang whips up war rhetoric following weeks of tension on the Korean peninsula, Reuters said.

Chinese authorities in the northeastern city of Dandong have told tour agencies to halt overland tourism into North Korea, local travel agents said on Wednesday.

Central government officials said tour groups had stopped travel of their own volition.

"Recently some Chinese travel agents and tourists, on seeing the tense situation on the Korean peninsula, cancelled or postponed their travel plans for North Korea," said Hong Lei, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "At present, the China-North Korea border is as normal."

State-controlled CCTV News said the Chinese government had not issued orders to shut down tourism to North Korea.

Four other travel agencies confirmed they had stopped tours that use the land border crossing into North Korea at Dandong. One cited a notice from the government tourism bureau in Dandong. The border remains open to commercial traffic, the travel agencies said.

North Korean anger over the imposition of UN sanctions after its last nuclear arms test in February has created one of the worst periods of tension on the divided peninsula since the end of the Korean War in 1953.