Russia began direct commercial flights to North Korea on Sunday, July 27, marking a new phase in the strengthening ties between the two countries amid Russia’s ongoing offensive in Ukraine.
The first flight from Moscow to Pyongyang, operated by Russia’s Nordwind Airlines, took off at 1625 GMT, according to Sheremetyevo airport’s website.
The flight is expected to arrive in the North Korean capital approximately eight hours later.
Initially, the route will be serviced only once a month, the Russian transport ministry said. Tickets for the flight were priced at 45,000 rubles, roughly five hundred seventy US dollars. Nordwind Airlines previously operated flights carrying Russians to European holiday destinations before the European Union imposed a ban on Russian flights.
“This is a historical event, strengthening the ties between our nations,” said Oleg, a Nordwind employee managing the flight, who declined to give his full name or disclose the number of passengers onboard.
Russia’s deputy transport minister Vladimir Poteshkin highlighted the significance of the event, stating that this was the first time in more than seventy years of diplomatic relations that direct flights were launched between the capitals of the two countries.
According to Russia’s state news agency TASS, the first return flight from Pyongyang to Moscow is scheduled for Tuesday, July 29. The two countries restored train links on June seventeenth after suspending them in 2020 during the Covid pandemic.
Russia and North Korea have been building closer military ties in recent years. Pyongyang has supplied troops and weapons for Russia’s military operations in Ukraine.
The two nations signed a mutual defence pact last year during a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to North Korea. In April, North Korea confirmed for the first time that it had deployed a contingent of its soldiers alongside Russian troops on the frontline in Ukraine.