Russia wants Aeroflot to fly to North Korea

Russia encourages the country’s airlines to organize scheduled flights to North Korea. As reported by the business magazine Kommersant this week.

According to the newspaper, the Russian State Civil Aviation Agency recently inquired with Aeroflot and Aurora about the two companies’ willingness to operate flights to Pyongyang. Last week, representatives of the agency visited North Korea to discuss expanding the number of flights between the two countries. Currently, Air Koryo, North Korea’s national airline, is the only company offering direct flights to Russia. Since August, the company has been flying twice a week between Pyongyang and Vladivostok.

Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine and the heavy sanctions imposed by the West, Russia has sought greater rapprochement with other neighboring and/or isolated countries. North Korea was added recently. That country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, even visited Russia and inspected the production of the Superjet 100. The call for more scheduled flights seems to be mainly due to political interests, because it is difficult to establish closer relations with a country. If there is very limited communication. Expanding the offer would allow delegations to travel back and forth between Russia and North Korea more easily. In addition, construction workers from North Korea regularly travel to Russia.

Aurora has already indicated that it is “theoretically prepared” to establish scheduled service to North Korea. However, Aeroflot has not yet commented. The Russian national airline currently does not have a valid permit for flights to Pyongyang.