BEIJING/SEOUL — An Air Koryo flight from Pyongyang landed in Beijing early on Tuesday (Aug 22) for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns began in 2020, as North Korea cracks open its border to some passenger travel.
The flight, JS151, arrived at 9.17am local time , shortly ahead of its scheduled time. It wasn't immediately clear who was aboard, but Western tour companies that operated in North Korea said it appeared to be a special flight that would on the return carry back North Koreans who had been trapped in China by the years of border closures.
In a first since before the pandemic, Chinese and Russian government delegations flew to Pyongyang last month and last week buses carrying North Korean athletes to a taekwondo tournament in Kazakhstan crossed the border into China. "This flight isn’t a full resumption of the route yet, it is a special flight for Koreans only to take people home again after years being stuck overseas," said Mr Simon Cockerell, general manager at Beijing-based Koryo Tours."The same as the flights that seem likely to happen soon from Vladivostok.
The travel curb hurt not just ordinary people but diplomats as well. The current Chinese ambassador to North Korea, Wang Yajun, had to wait 15 months after being named for the job before he could enter the country this March to take up his role.
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