Air Koryo is the state owned and government run airline of North Korea, based at Pyongyang’s Sunan International Airport. It was founded under the name SOKAO in 1950 as a joint venture between North Korea and Soviet Russia, but had to suspend business shortly after due to the Korean War. A successor was established in 1954 under the name of Choson Minhang and started operations in late September of 1955 before being renamed Air Koryo in 1993. Air Koryo from the beginning was placed under the control of the Civil Aviation Administration, a part of the North Korean Airforce – which means that all pilots are military officers. Due to North Koreas close affiliation with the soviets all airplanes in the fleet of Air Koryo are Russian models. Antonovs, Ilyushins, Tupolevs. During the Cold War Air Koryo flew to more than three dozen destinations within Korea and all over the world – nowadays there are only three regular international connections (Beijing three times a week, Shenyang twice a week and Vladivostok once a week) plus a couple of charter flights. In Europe Air Koryo is blacklisted since March 2006, though that ban was lifted four years later for two newly acquired Tupolev Tu-204s.
It was on board of one of those two machines that my fellow travelers and I started our trip to Pyongyang in Beijing. Some websites still recommend using Air China (or the 24 hour train…) to get to North Korea’s capital, but I would have chosen Air Koryo anyway if I would have been asked to choose. How often do you have the opportunity to fly Air Koryo?!
Interestingly enough our predominantly white Air Koryo plane was parked right next to a predominantly blue plane by Korean Air – the flag carrier and largest airline of South Korea. Since the Korean Air machine took off before we even boarded I had the great opportunity to take a photo of both machines at the same time when the Seoul bound machine was on its way to the runway. Two planes, one photo. It didn’t cross my mind at the time, but I am sure North Koreans would have loved the picture, them being all about one united Korea. (And so would have the dozen Christians wearing “A United Korea 4 The World” sweatshirts that boarded the plane with us. I seriously hope they were able to leave the country without running into trouble – they might love Korea, but (North) Korea doesn’t love missionaries. And those guys looked like they were on a mission from God…)
Air Koryo actually was the first positive surprise of my *trip to the DPRK*. After using *Ukraine International Airlines to Kiev* three years prior, my expectations on (former) communist airlines were as low as they can get; but the Tupolev Tu-204 was a perfectly fine modern plane with the usual seat spacing, the flight attendants were as friendly as they were beautiful (and they were gorgeous!) and the food was living up to international standards, too.
When checking in I was asking for a seat away from the wings to be able to look outside and maybe take a quick video secretly. At that point the photography situation was a bit up in the air (no pun intended…) – we were told that it’s okay to take photos on board, but not of the stewardesses; and nobody asked about video or footage through the windows. So I took a few quick snapshots until one of the other foreign travelers was shut down when he violated the instructions we got and took photos of a flight attendant… Even worse: After we all settled in and were ready to take off about a dozen Koreans boarded the plane and occupied seats all over the aircraft cabin. Just a coincidence? Or a way to keep an eye on the foreigners at a time when the official guides were still waiting for our arrival in Pyongyang? I felt a bit uneasy, but decided to give the rather young fella sitting next to me the benefit of the doubt. Which turned out to be right about an hour later. Lunch was just served and I was wondering if it was okay to take a photo of the meal – as we all know from Western media: Taking pictures most likely is a crime… So I slowly unwrapped all the small containers and before I could even start to eat my meal the guy in the neighboring seat pulled out his smart phone and took a photo himself. Easy going! The same situation a couple of minutes later. While I was wondering whether it was okay to take some photos of the landscape passing by (there could have been airports or train stations or military camps – or worse!) we were informed that we just entered Korean airspace – and all of a sudden everybody took photos, including our late arriving Koreans. Lesson learned: Don’t shove a lens into somebody’s face and you can take photos of pretty much everything you want…
Air Koryo’s home airport Pyongyang Sunan International Airport is as small as you think it is – two landing strips, one of them closed permanently. There are 10 regular international flights a week at Sunan (7 by Air Koryo, 3 by Air China), plus charter flights and some cargo flights – that’s it! There are no official statistics about flight movements within the DPRK, but I doubt that there are many, given the rather high cost of air transport and the regime’s problem to get fuel.
On the positive side: Immigration is a piece of cake. You show your filled out forms, your passport and your visa – and then you are in. No bag checks, no other bullshit. When you want to enter Japan on the other hand you get treated like a criminal as they take your finger prints and a photo. Every… friggin… time! I’m on my third Japanese long-term visa, I never ran into trouble, I always pay my taxes – nevertheless I get treated like a murder suspect every time I come back from an overseas trip… Welcome home! (Of course this treatment only applies to foreigners, Japanese people just waltz in…)
(Please *click here to get to Abandoned Kansai’s North Korea Special* and *here for a map about the tour at GoogleMaps*. If you don’t want to miss the latest article you can *follow Abandoned Kansai on Twitter* and *like this blog on Facebook* – and of course there is the *video channel on Youtube*…)
Another terrific report, well done.
Thanks a lot Phil!
I haven’t visited Japan in a few years, but I don’t recall being fingerprinted at the airport immigration. They reserved that for people who stay more than 3 months and need to get their Alien registration card. Has it changed?
Yes, that changed a couple of years ago. Now all foreigners age 16 and older get treated like criminals when entering Japan – with few exceptions, like diplomats.
Even tourists? or just those who are residing there? So if you have your gaijin card, then they don’t have to re-print you? I guess its all digital now. In my day, you had to get your finger inked.
Both tourists and foreign residents. And even though I have a gaijin card and a re-entry permit and everything is digital they still do it over and over and over again.
Either Japanese officials really like giving foreigners a hassle for kicks or they must be extremely paranoid, afraid of the world or probably do not know a lot about whats outside there country. Why on earth do they feel they need to treat every foreigner like a criminal?
Japan is blindly following the example of the United States – taking photos and finger prints is their way to protect them from terrorist attacks; which is hilariously funny as terrorist attacks in Japan are extremely rare and were ALL committed by Japanese nationals.
(It might seem strange to accept not being allowed to leave some hotels while being in North Korea and at the same time bashing Japan for their “security measures”, but I guess nobody will claim that Japan doesn’t have higher moral standards… and sometimes they need to live up to them in a better way. I love living in Japan, but the country has its flaws, too – and sometimes I like to point them out.)
Awesome report on the Koryo experience. I hope you saved the wet napkin!
I am living in Japan for too long, so I used the wet napkin without thinking about it. But I got a couple of souvernirs while in the DPRK. 🙂
that food looks way better than anything I’ve ever had on an airplane in recent years.
It tasted pretty good, too! They could have heated the rice / stew container a bit more, but since I don’t mind lukewarm food it was perfectly fine IMHO.
That’s one of the nicest looking airline meals I’ve seen! I love food (and food loves me) and the tastiest airline food I’ve ever had was on Emirates Airlines. The worst coffee and almost worst food has to be on Egypt Air.
I think I went to Japan with Emirates once, but I never used Egypt Air. Ukrainian Airways was by far my worst flight experience, followed by KLM, Alitalia and Air France.
I love that picture with both North and South Korean airlines. Be honest you are really brave since if the North Korean officials did a check on your camera, you might be in trouble!
I actually don’t think I would have gotten into trouble if the officials would have checked my camera. The guides were very nice to us, so I didn’t take photos against their advice – and if somebody asked me to stop taking photos (like at the department store we went to) I stopped taking photos. Just because I like taking photos in Chernobyl & Pripyat, in North Korea and at abandoned places doesn’t mean that I am a trouble seeker… 🙂
Funny photo with the South Korean plane. If not with Air Koryo, I would have chosen the 24h train, I’m it would be an interesting experience 🙂
I actually left the DPRK by train since I wanted to have that experience, too – with a 24 hour layover in Dandong, China. It was an interesting experience, but only worth because of the stop.
Just a thought, but when I lived in Japan during the early Heisei years, one could use the “Japanese” queue at Narita, if in possession of a re-entry permit. Ever tried that? (But this was the the time when you only got fingerprinted for your gaijin-card)
They have special re-entry permit lines now, but they still take a photo and fingerprints every friggin time you enter the country.