State airline from North Korea makes first international flight after three years

The state airline from North Korea is back online and it has made its first international trip since the start of the Covid pandemic, in a sign of easing border restrictions that could repatriate its stranded nationals abroad and increase trade with its powerful neighbour.

It has been indicated by flight data that an Air Koryo passenger jet flew from Pyongyang to Beijing on Tuesday, which would be the first such commercial flight in more than three years. This week, China’s Foreign Ministry revealed that the country had given permission for the flight.

Air Koryo will be operating flights as at Friday and 28 August between Vladivostok and Pyongyang, according to NK News, a specialist service on North Korea. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sealed the border at the start of the pandemic in early 2020.

This slowed down the little legal trade conducted by his heavily sanctioned state and it also left stranded North Korea’s diplomats and thousands of workers sent to places such as Russia and China to earn hard currency for Kim’s regime.

Last month North Korea allowed in high-level delegations from Russia and China for the first time since the start of the pandemic, and this month sent a group of its taekwondo athletes abroad to take part in a championship in Kazakhstan.

Historically Pyongyang’s biggest partner, signs of a resumption of trade with China, led Fitch Solutions to estimate North Korea’s economy returned to growth after two full years of contraction. Still, it added that significant uncertainties still remain.

Air Koryo has previously been ranked among the worst airlines in the world.