Russia starts direct commercial flights between Moscow and Pyongyang
The first flight operated by Russian carrier Nordwind took off from Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport carrying over 400 passengers. Russia's Transport Ministry said there will be one flight a month to meet demand.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who visited North Korea's new Wonsan-Kalma beach resort earlier this month to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, promised to encourage Russian tourists to visit the complex.
The resort, which can accommodate nearly 20,000 people, is at the center of Kim's push to boost tourism to improve his country's troubled economy.
North Korea has been slowly easing the curbs imposed during the pandemic and reopening its borders in phases. But the country hasn't said if it would fully resume international tourism.
Regular flights between Russia's eastern port city of Vladivostok and Pyongyang reopened in 2023 following a break caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Russia and North Korea have sharply expanded military and other ties in recent years, with Pyongyang supplying weapons and troops to back Russia's military action in Ukraine.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Asharq Al-Awsat
6 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Trump Sets New Deadline of 10 or 12 Days for Russia to Act on Ukraine
US President Donald Trump set a new deadline on Monday of 10 or 12 days for Russia to make progress toward ending the war in Ukraine or face consequences, underscoring frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the 3-1/2-year-old conflict. Trump has threatened both sanctions on Russia and buyers of its exports unless progress is made. The fresh deadline suggests the US president is prepared to move forward on those threats after previous hesitation to do so. Speaking in Scotland, where he is holding meetings with European leaders and playing golf, Trump said he was disappointed in Putin and shortening a 50-day deadline he had set on the issue earlier this month. "I'm going to make a new deadline of about ... 10 or 12 days from today," Trump told reporters during a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. "There's no reason in waiting... We just don't see any progress being made." There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin. Ukraine welcomed the statement. Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief of staff, thanked Trump in a social media post for "standing firm and delivering a clear message of peace through strength." Trump, who has expressed annoyance also with Zelenskiy, has not always followed tough talk about Putin with action, citing what he deems a good relationship that the two men have had previously. On Monday, Trump indicated he was not interested in more talks with Putin. He said sanctions and tariffs would be used as penalties for Moscow if it did not meet Trump's demands. "There's no reason to wait. If you know what the answer is going to be, why wait? And it would be sanctions and maybe tariffs, secondary tariffs," Trump said. "I don't want to do that to Russia. I love the Russian people." Ukraine had proposed a summit between Putin and Zelenskiy before the end of August, but the Kremlin has said that timeline was unlikely and that a meeting could only happen as a final step to clinch peace. Russia's foreign ministry said on Saturday that if the West wanted real peace with Ukraine, it would stop supplying Kyiv with weapons. Trump has repeatedly voiced exasperation with Putin for pursuing attacks on Ukraine despite US efforts to end the war. Trump has played up successes in other parts of the world where the United States has helped to broker peace agreements and has been flattered by some leaders who suggest he should be given the Nobel Peace Prize. "I'm disappointed in President Putin," Trump said on Monday. "I'm going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number because I think I already know the answer what's going to happen." Trump, who is also struggling to achieve a peace deal in Gaza, has touted his role in ending conflicts between India and Pakistan as well as Rwanda and Congo. Before returning to the White House in January, Trump campaigned on a promise to end Russia's conflict with Ukraine in a day. "We thought we had that settled numerous times, and then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city like Kyiv and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever," Trump said. "And I say that's not the way to do it."
Argaam
8 hours ago
- Argaam
Eastern Province unveils Global Village Project with up to SAR 650M investments
The Eastern Province Municipality announced the 'Global Village Project", a major investment initiative in collaboration with a Thai investor, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. Spokesman Faisal Al-Zahrani said the project combines entertainment, tourism, culture, and commerce in a modern design, featuring 16 country-themed pavilions, each with a restaurant showcasing its national cuisine. The development will be built around a man-made lake, featuring a floating market and an open-air amphitheater with 7,000 seats, expandable to 10,000 for large events. Other attractions include a 17,000-square-meter (sqm) amusement park for all age groups, a large outdoor skating rink, global restaurants, and family-oriented activities, positioning the site as a key entertainment destination in the region. The project covers over 600,000 sqm of land and water, with phase one valued at SAR 200 million and total investment set to reach SAR 650 million, according to studies by the municipality and its investor partner.
Al Arabiya
9 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Cyberattack On Russian Airline Aeroflot Causes The Cancellation Of More Than 100 Flights
A cyberattack on Russian state-owned flagship carrier Aeroflot caused a mass outage to the company's computer systems on Monday, Russia's prosecutors office said, forcing the airline to cancel more than 100 flights and delay others. Ukrainian hacker group Silent Crow and Belarusian hacker activist group the Belarus Cyber-Partisans, which opposes the rule of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, claimed responsibility for the cyberattack. Images shared on social media showed hundreds of delayed passengers crowding Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, where Aeroflot is based. The outage also disrupted flights operated by Aeroflot's subsidiaries Rossiya and Pobeda. While most of the flights affected were domestic, the disruption also led to cancellations for some international flights to Belarus, Armenia, and Uzbekistan. In a statement released early Monday, Aeroflot warned passengers that the company's information technology system was experiencing unspecified difficulties and that disruption could follow. Russia's Prosecutors Office later confirmed that a cyberattack had caused the outage and that it had opened a criminal investigation. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called reports of the cyberattack 'quite alarming,' adding that 'the hacker threat is a threat that remains for all large companies providing services to the general public.' Silent Crow claimed it had accessed Aeroflot's corporate network for a year, copying customer and internal data, including audio recordings of phone calls, data from the company's own surveillance on employees, and other intercepted communications. 'All of these resources are now inaccessible or destroyed, and restoring them will possibly require tens of millions of dollars. The damage is strategic,' the channel purporting to be the Silent Crow group wrote on Telegram. There was no way to independently verify its claims. The same channel also shared screenshots that appeared to show Aeroflot's internal IT systems and insinuated that Silent Crow could begin sharing the data it had seized in the coming days. 'The personal data of all Russians who have ever flown with Aeroflot have now also gone on a trip – albeit without luggage and to the same destination,' it said. The Belarus Cyber-Partisans told The Associated Press that they had hoped to deliver a 'crushing blow.' The group has previously claimed responsibility for a number of cyberattacks and said in April 2024 that they had been able to infiltrate the network of Belarus' main KGB security agency. 'This is a very large-scale attack and one of the most painful in terms of consequences,' group coordinator Yuliana Shametavets said. She said that the group had been preparing the attack for several months and were able to penetrate the Aeroflot network by exploiting various vulnerabilities. Belarus is a close ally of Russia. Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron hand for more than 30 years and has relied on Russian subsidies and support, allowed Russia to use his country's territory to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, and to deploy some of Moscow's tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. Russia's airports have repeatedly faced mass delays over the summer as a result of Ukrainian drone attacks, with flights grounded amid safety concerns.
