BEIJING: North Korea’s national airline was set to make its first commercial flight in over three years on Monday, only for it to be abruptly canceled at the last minute.
North Korea has been largely closed off from the outside world since early 2020, when it shut its borders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Journalists gathered on Monday at Beijing’s Capital Airport to await Air Koryo flight JS151 from Pyongyang, due to arrive at 09:50 a.m.
But almost two hours after its scheduled arrival, a signboard in the terminal unexpectedly signaled it had been canceled, prompting groans of disappointment from media waiting to see some of the isolated North’s first international travelers in years.
Beijing airport customer service said that Air Koryo had not given a reason for the cancelation.
AFP was unable to contact Air Koryo’s China offices on Monday, and a journalist who visited the state-owned airline’s Beijing outpost found the glass doors locked and bolted.
But the office seemed well-maintained, with a worker on the same floor saying they had not seen any of the airline’s staff come to the office that morning, though they did show up occasionally.
After three years of COVID-19-induced isolation, there are increasing signs Pyongyang may be becoming more flexible on border controls, experts say.
Chinese and Russian officials attended a military parade in the North Korean capital last month — the first foreign dignitaries to visit the country in years.
Last week Pyongyang allowed a delegation of athletes to attend a taekwondo competition in Kazakhstan.
The Yonhap and Kyodo news agencies reported that a group of people, believed to be North Korean athletes, had crossed the land border into China last Wednesday before traveling on to Beijing, then flying to Central Asia.
Monday was expected to see Air Koryo – Pyongyang’s beleaguered national air carrier – conduct its first commercial flight in over three years.
Seoul’s Unification Ministry, which manages relations with the North, said there was “absolutely nothing we are aware of” regarding the cancelation of the flight.
“There have been various signs regarding North Korea’s reopening of its borders,” an official said
“But it is difficult to determine yet whether it is a full-scale opening of the border or a fairly limited and controlled opening,” they added.
Specialist website NK News reported Monday that Air Koryo was set to carry out two flights from Russia’s Vladivostok to Pyongyang this week.
North Korea abruptly cancels first post-coronavirus international commercial flight
https://arab.news/bqwcp
North Korea abruptly cancels first post-coronavirus international commercial flight
- North Korea has been largely closed off from the outside world since early 2020, when it shut its borders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic
Gordon Brown ‘regrets’ Iraq War support, new biography says
- Former UK PM claims he was ‘misled’ over evidence of WMDs
- Robin Cook, the foreign secretary who resigned in protest over calls for war, had a ‘clearer view’
LONDON: Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown regrets his failure to oppose Tony Blair’s push for war with Iraq, a new biography has said.
Brown told the author of “Gordon Brown: Power with Purpose,” James Macintyre, that Robin Cook, the former foreign secretary who opposed the war, had a “clearer view” than the rest of the government at the time.
Cook quit the Cabinet in 2003 after protesting against the war, claiming that the push to topple Saddam Hussein was based on faulty information over a claimed stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.
That information served as the fundamental basis for the US-led war but was later discredited following the invasion of Iraq.
Brown, chancellor at the time, publicly supported Blair’s push for war, but now says he was “misled.”
If Brown had joined Cook’s protest at the time, the campaign to avoid British involvement in the war may have succeeded, political observers have since said.
The former prime minister said: “Robin had been in front of us and Robin had a clearer view. He felt very strongly there were no weapons.
“And I did not have that evidence … I was being told that there were these weapons. But I was misled like everybody else.
“And I did ask lots of questions … and I didn’t get the correct answers,” he added.
“Gordon Brown: Power with Purpose,” will be published by Bloomsbury next month.
