Air China to resume flights to North Korea at the end of the month after train service restarted

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BEIJING (AP) — Air China will resume flights flying between Beijing and North Korea from March 30, the airline's website said Saturday, after passenger train services running between the two nations restarted earlier this week .

According to the website of the stated-owned airline, flights from China's capital to Pyongyang, North Korea's capital will run every Monday until May 18, but would scale down to two Mondays in June.

In 2020 with the start of the coronavirus pandemic, North Korea banned tourists, jetted out diplomats and severely curtailed border traffic in one of the world’s most draconian COVID-19 restrictions. Two years later, Pyongyang started slowly easing curbs and reopening its borders.

North Korean Air Koryo resumed flights between the two nations’ capitals in 2023.

In February 2024, North Korea accepted some Russian tourists for sightseeing visits, the first foreign nationals to visit the country. That development surprised many observers who thought the first post-pandemic tourists to North Korea would come from China, Pyongyang’s biggest trading partner and major ally. North Korea later on also started welcoming other tourists.