North Korea shows off flight skills, new airport at air festival

PanARMENIAN.Net - North Korea opened an air festival featuring sky diving, air force demonstrations and lots of beer Saturday, September 24 to promote a newly renovated and upgraded airport in the coastal city of Wonsan, an area where it hopes to draw more foreign tourists, the Associated Press reports.

The two-day International Friendship Air Festival has been touted for months by the North as part of its ongoing effort to draw more tourists. The Wonsan area with its beaches and rugged mountain scenery, including a ski resort, is already popular with Chinese tourists and in the past attracted many Japanese, who came by ferry.

Japanese visits dropped off abruptly as political relations deteriorated over revelations that North Korea had abducted more than a dozen Japanese people in the 1970s and 80s and then over its nuclear weapons and long-range missile programs.

The new Wonsan airport features a sparkling terminal building with cafes, shops and an airy, glass-walled modern design. Aircraft from the national flag-carrier, Air Koryo, were lined up on the tarmac in a static display.

A Hughes 500 helicopter, modified for military use, started off the show with a low-to-ground display of hovering and aerobatic techniques. A MiG-29, a Russian fighter jet, roared over the crowd to loud roars of cheers and applause, and another Russian-made ground attack fighter flew later in the morning, AP says.

Thousands of Koreans turned out for the opening, along with a crowd of foreign journalists and tourists invited to attend the event.

Han Chang Rim, a 38-year-old cafeteria worker from Rason, in northern North Korea, said he was most impressed by the fighter jets.

"Seeing the MiG-29 was the most interesting, both the plane and the skills of the pilot," he said. "Our guide said the pilot has actually met Marshall Kim Jong Un. I'm really enjoying this."