North Korea’s Air Koryo Resumes China Flights for First Time in Years

Air Koryo of North Korea has resumed passenger flight operations on its Pyongyang-Shenyang route. This comes nearly four years after North Korea closed its borders and completely halted human traffic when COVID-19 began to spread in China in January 2020.

According to a Beijing diplomatic source and the aircraft tracking website Flight Aware, an Air Koryo flight JS155 departed from Pyongyang at around 12:30 PM on the 13th. It arrived at Taoxian Airport in Shenyang around 11:50 AM (China time). The flight carried about 120 North Koreans living in China and returned to Pyongyang around 3:40 PM. Many of these passengers are known to have been involved in trade activities in northeastern China.

Preparation for Flight Resumption

On the 6th, it was noted that Air Koryo was gearing up to recommence flights to Shenyang, China. This move came after they had already resumed flights to both Beijing and Vladivostok, Russia. Air Koryo posted on its website that a ticket for the Pyongyang-Shenyang flight would cost 1,180 yuan, approximately equivalent to $185.

The revival of Air Koryo’s passenger flights connecting Pyongyang and Shenyang marks a significant milestone, as it’s the first time this route has been operational in nearly four years, since January 2020. Back then, North Korea had shut its borders and halted all human traffic due to the spread of the COVID-19 virus in China. While North Korea dispatched three substantial multipurpose transport aircraft to Shenyang to deliver Chinese medicines in May of the previous year, passenger flights between Pyongyang and Shenyang remained suspended.

However, as the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be easing, international transportation between North Korea and China is gradually resuming. In Northeast China, a gateway for North Korea, freight train operations between Sinuiju and Dandong, Liaoning Province, resumed last January. Since January of this year, freight trucks and buses for transporting North Koreans in Hunchun, Nanping, and Dandong have gradually continued, effectively reopening most transportation routes.

Nevertheless, the operation of international trains running from Pyongyang to Sinuiju, then to Dandong, and onward to Beijing remains suspended.