Moscow starts direct flights to North Korea amid decline in options for Russian tourists

[BeyondGeography]

This should cheer them up.

Direct flights from Moscow to North Korea have begun this week, amid a strengthening of ties between the two nations and a decline in options for Russian tourists travelling abroad. The first Moscow-Pyongyang flight, operated by Russia’s Nordwind Airlines, took off on Sunday, according to the Sheremetyevo airport’s website, and landed in the North Korean capital about eight hours later.

The route will initially be serviced only once a month, Russia’s transport ministry said, with the first return flight from Pyongyang to Moscow taking place on Tuesday. Nordwind Airlines – which used to carry Russians to holiday destinations in Europe before the EU imposed a ban on Russian flights – had tickets priced at 45,000 rubles ($570).

…Russia and North Korea have been forging closer military bonds in recent years, with Pyongyang supplying troops and weapons for Russia’s military operations in Ukraine. They signed a mutual defence pact last year when the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, visited North Korea. “For the first time in more than 70 years of diplomatic relations, we are launching direct flights between the capitals of our countries,” Russia’s deputy transport minister, Vladimir Poteshkin, was quoted as saying on the ministry’s Telegram account.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/28/moscow-pyongyang-direct-flights-russia-to-north-korea-tourists?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

[doc03]

1. That is my dream vacation North Korea

[oasis]

2. What a pity.

[hatrack]

3. Wow, demand must be through the roof - one flight a month!!

[Conjuay]

4. Either you return the next day, or the next month.

That works.

[Passages]

5. HA HA HA

I can't quite process this relationship! Tourism in North Korea? It is one of the saddest places on earth.


North Korea halts tourism just weeks after reopening
6 March 2025


Jean Mackenzie
Seoul correspondent
Kelly Ng
BBC News


North Korea has stopped tourists from visiting, just weeks after the first Western tourists entered the country for the first time in five years.

North Korea sealed itself off at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, and started to scale back restrictions in the middle of 2023.

It opened up to Russian visitors in 2024, but it was only last month that Western tourists were allowed into the remote, eastern city Rason.

However several tour companies now say that trips to the reclusive country have been cancelled until further notice. Pyongyang has not given a reason for the sudden halt.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjry1yz9qevo