Air China Restarts Beijing-Pyongyang Flights

0:00It's March 30th. This is Canada News today, AI-powered stories from your city. China's main airline, Air China, just fired up direct flights again between Beijing and Pyongyang this Monday, hot on the heels of passenger trains. Restarting between the two capitals, these links had been shut down since the COVID pandemic kicked off back in 2020. Trains rolled back into action on March 12th, while North Korea's own Air Corio had already restarted its flights between the cities in 2020. 23. It's a step toward normalizing travel after years of lockdown. Observers are buzzing because Chinese tourists made up 90% of visitors to North Korea before the ban, so the hold-up on their return has. Kot folks off guard. China remains Pyongyang's top trade buddy and closest ally, even while calling out those missile tests aimed at South Korea and the U.S. Kim Jong-un jetted to Beijing last September for a huge military parade, the first time a North Korean leader showed up for one in decades.

1:01Meanwhile, North Korea's easing tourist rules, letting in a Russian group this year. All this points to ties warming up between the neighbors, with more cross-border flow on the horizon.