SAEDNEWS: A Russian airline carried out its first flight on a new route connecting Moscow and the North Korean capital on Monday, marking the first direct commercial flight between the two cities in decades.
Nordwind Airlines’ flight NWS6107 (tail number RA-73340) touched down at Pyongyang’s Sunan International Airport at around 9:30 a.m. KST after an over eight-hour red-eye, according to the Flightradar24 aircraft tracking service.
Notably, unlike Russian government aircraft that have visited North Korea over the past two years, Nordwinds’ Boeing 777-212 reached the DPRK via Chinese airspace, without taking a detour through Siberia and Vladivostok on its way to Pyongyang.
Russian state-affiliated news agencies reported before its departure that the jet was set to carry mostly North Korean nationals traveling home. However, some Russian citizens also boarded the flight, including a delegation led by Alexander Kozlov, Russia’s ecology minister.
