North Korea's national carrier was set to operate two flights between Pyongyang and Beijing, its website showed earlier, drawing attention to whether the route will resume after more than a year of suspension amid coronavirus concerns.
According to the flight schedule released on Air Koryo's website, the airline's JS251 flight will depart from Pyongyang at 4:00 p.m. and arrive in Beijing at 5:50 p.m. on Thursday, 1 April. Another flight is scheduled to depart from Beijing for Pyongyang on that Friday.
As of 4:30 p.m., 1 April, however, no flight took off from Pyongyang, according to Flightradar24, a real-time flight tracker. Some speculated that the airline could have tested its website in preparation to resume flights to China.
Earlier, a unification ministry official told reporters that the North is showing "increasing signs" of easing its border restrictions with China.
Since January last year, the North has closed all ports of entry by land, sea or air as part of efforts to block the COVID-19 virus from spreading into the country.
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