If you’ve ever been curious enough to care, you may have heard some pretty sketchy stories about aviation in a sketchy country. A quick search on Google can reveal dingy cabins, scary flight attendants confiscating cameras, and of course, Soviet-Era aircraft courtesy of Kim Jong Il and Kim Il-Sung's powers of persuasion.

Before we continue, it’s important to note that North Korea is a country where the majority of its citizens can only travel out of the local district with a permit, which is almost impossible to attain, especially for your average citizen.

If you’re still curious, you may now be questioning how a country with such a low aviation demand can be causing such a hassle for tens-of-millions of passengers annually, both financially (greater flying time=greater fuel burn=greater overall cost) and socially (losing time and a greater threat to aircraft).

The answer isn’t so simple. It stems from years of tense negotiations, and desperate measures to ensure the continuity of air travel, even in tense and uneasy times.

Aircraft based and registered in North Korea are banned in most parts of the world, most notably, the entirety of the EU. For the country’s flag carrier, Air Koryo, the blacklist ban from the EU instantly cut off the few remaining destinations kept alive in the region.

After the fall of communism in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and East Germany, there was no possibility or legality for Korean Worker’s Party and Army officials to travel to these countries. With these two brackets of customers gone, Air Koryo quite literally had no-one to carry, and if not instantly banned, then it had to completely cancel services.

At this point, the flaws in North Korea’s communist economy were evident. The final straw came with the collapse of the Soviet Union, which saw the main supplier of economic aid to the country disappear, leaving a furious China to support a collapsing communist regime. By now, Kim Jong-Il was already taking care of the day-to-day running of the country, leaving his father to handle the endless diplomatic issues. Yeltsin, the succeeder of the last Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev, had no choice but to restrict the communist airline from flying into Russia amidst the chaos of transitioning out of Sovietism.

Following this, Air Koryo cancelled more of their services west of China (excluding Vladivostok), including Chita, Irkutsk, Khabarovsk, Novosibirsk and Ulan-Ude in Russia, and Belgrade in Serbia.

Following that, Air Koryo slowly began crippling like the remainder of the mother-country. Domestic services, whilst still being operated infrequently, were cut down, and travel numbers on the airline plummeted.

Moving forward roughly two decades, the UN began a ‘counter assault’ against the rogue state. Aside from economic sanctions placed on China for providing financial aid and exports to North Korea, blacklist bans were placed on North Korea by Japan, Kuwait, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand. Those five countries saw the end of most of Air Koryo’s international services, with the exception of Switzerland.

Switzerland, who for decades had remained completely neutral in its position towards North Korea, even educating children of the North Korean elite, was forced by the UN and EU to also ban Air Koryo.

As of April 2019, Air Koryo flies its main route between Beijing and Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. This service, whilst frequently delayed or cancelled, is often considered to be somewhat profitable, largely kept this way by the multiple tour companies running North Korean sightseeing tours. Aside from this route, however, there are multiple domestic flights within North Korea, most of which generally only operate via charter from tour companies and occasionally, events.

There are also a few scheduled and a few charter flights to China, and a regular service to Vladivostok, Russia.

Whilst this might sound like a good assortment of destinations and services, it should be noted that Air Koryo operated to over 43 destinations throughout its heyday, and is now reduced to 22, of which 13 are infrequent domestic routes.

North Korea might be considered in the context of a child who had one Lego brick stolen, and in the midst of a tantrum decides to not only hoard all of their own Lego bricks, but steal some from the child down the street.

Basically, that represents when North Korea was subjected to blacklist bans and aviation bans, and decided to close up their ‘box’, and make life annoying for everyone else, including all airlines that need to take a huge crescent shape track around North Korea, usually on the Chinese side of the Yellow Sea. This manoeuvre was re-assessed after the flight crew of a jetliner flying from San Francisco in November 2017 witnessed a North Korean missile on a test flight. After an investigation by the NTSB, it was revealed that the aircraft was a mere 280 nautical miles from where the missile landed in the minutes after the sighting. US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson noted that throughout that day, roughly 716 flights carrying up to 152,000 passengers passed through that area.

Dangerous situations like that have occurred frequently over the past few years, highlighting the heightened risk-factor towards aviation around the Korean Peninsula.

Japan has also been the target of ‘mock attacks’ by the North Korean government. In 2018, a test of a ICBM saw it fly over the Northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. Despite the constant threat, the Japanese government has made it clear that North Korea will not be able to suspend Japanese air traffic.

After South Korean leader Moon Jae-in met with the Supreme Leader of the North, Kim Jong-un, a new open airway between the two countries was proposed. Whether or not this will be implemented is to be confirmed. If successful, there is a possibility that North Korea will be able to rectify its hermit status, by first allowing air traffic to pass through.

The ultimate future of Air Koryo is uncertain. It comes down to how the Kim regime flays out its tactics in negotiating with the South Korean government. If negotiations take a turn for the better, we could potentially see some sanctions lifted, ultimately allowing Air Koryo to once again expand their operations.

For now, however, aviation in North Korea will remain a mystery. As one scrolls through their Instagram feed, the occasional meme will pop up, either highlighting a horrific looking burger, photoshopped faces of Kim Jong-un and more. Hopefully in the future, the country can open up with pride, and peace can truly return to the Korean peninsula.