At the end of September, the first airshow in North Korea took place at the newly built airport in Wonsan. Organized by the British special interest tour operator JUCHE-Tours, around 200 enthusiasts and spotters were able to take part.
The package cost around €1,300 from/to Beijing and could be extended by 2 to 4 nights if you also wanted to see the capital (including the large NK propaganda opera) and nature parks. Also (low) over 15,000 Koreans then flew over Wonsan last weekend MiG-21, MiG-29 and Su-25 of the DRPK Air Force as well as Mi-8, Mi-17 and Hughes-500. Furthermore, while real MiG-17 and MiG-19 (not Chinese copies) are still in service, Kim Jong un’s flying force usually suffers from few flying hours or consequently little practice due to Western fuel sanctions. According to reports, however, this was not noticeable in the jets that were flown. The entire range of the national civil airline Air-Koryo was also on display,
i.e. Tu-134, Tu-154, An-24, Il-62 and the new Il-148. Pleasure flights were also possible with the civil aircraft for between 150 and 250 euros. British friends of our author Georg Mader were there, of course, and provided us with a small selection of impressions in low resolution.
Text: Georg Mader, Pictures: KITC-Juche/DeMaison
