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NORTH KOREA HAS opened a new terminal building at Pyongyang’s international airport, underscoring an effort to attract more tourists and to spruce up the country ahead of a celebration of a major anniversary of the founding of its ruling party in October.
North Korean Premier Pak Pong Ju officiated at the opening ceremony, which marks the completion of years of work at Pyongyang’s main Sunan airport.
NK NEWS / TwitterKim Jong Un Inspects Terminal of Pyongyang International Airport | @KCNAWatch http://t.co/efE8Gya9Tq pic.twitter.com/O5aanPTSE7
— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) June 25, 2015
However, the airport is likely to appear largely empty. Just a handful of international flights come and go from Pyongyang every week, although since last year the frequency has increased.
Only two airlines have scheduled flights to Pyongyang — North Korea’s flag carrier, Air Koryo, and Air China.
The new international terminal building is roughly the same size as the old one which was long in service. But it is much bigger than the small, temporary terminal building that has been in use for the past few years while construction was going on.
In recent years, the regular international connections from Pyongyang have been Beijing and Shenyang in China, along with Vladivostok in Russia.
Air Koryo occasionally flies further afield, for example to Malaysia and Kuwait, but those are not regular flights.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had shown a keen interest in the construction of the new airport facilities and North Korean state media reported him making inspection visits to the project four times in the past two years.
NK NEWS / TwitterKim Jong Un Inspects Terminal of Pyongyang International Airport | @KCNAWatch http://t.co/efE8Gya9Tq pic.twitter.com/7j1wk8cwGk
— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) June 25, 2015
On one occasion last year, North Korean state media reported that Kim Jong Un criticized the construction of the new airport terminal building, highlighting “defects.”.
It is rare for North Korean media to mention any problems in the country, but under Kim Jong Un there have been other occasions where his criticisms have been published.
Photos of his visit to the new terminal were prominently featured in the North’s media last week. Judging from his broad smile in those photos, whatever defects he had previously pointed out were fixed.
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Yeah but we linked up the two Luas lines with a few hundred meters of track.
It’s interesting that that bridge is longer than some of the envisaged routes for a bridge between us and the UK. It’ll probably never happen but interesting nonetheless
@Tweety McTweeter: is that on a flat earth or is that plan a series of bridges of length 55km to make up the distance between US and UK ?
@Tweety McTweeter: It also sits in much shallower water and in an area with not as much shipping traffic as the Irish sea
@Chewey Bacca: See below link, 38km
https://www.freemaptools.com/how-far-is-it-between-dublin_-ireland-and-holyhead_-wales.htm
@William O’Brien: William, i thought he meant the US when he mentioned us. 7,000 km bridge in sections obviously.
@Larissa Nikolaus: the shipping traffic in the region is huge. In the region Hong Kong (6th), Shenzhen (3rd) and Guangzhou(7th) are all in the top 7 busiest ports in the world. But the “bridge” includes a 7km tunnel facilitating shipping. The Irish sea is rougher but HK is a typhoon region which the bridge was built to withstand. The Pearl river delta has 120M people. Difficult to see how connecting Dublin to the UK could be viable.
Incredible structure, very impressed. “…includes an undersea tunnel allowing ships to pass through.” I would love to see this.
@Salah & Chips:
A great bunch of lads…. Boom, first in best dressed with traditional Ted quote
Sure in Ireland, we’d be complaining that it spoils our view of the sea, river , whichever.
@Geraldine O’Riordan: be realistic. you can’t see that bridge from Ireland.
@Bill Clay: of course you can – it’s literally at the top of the page.
@Bill Clay: Ha Ha…But I can see it in my mind….
Ah sure they’ll get over it
A bridge too far…
55 Km – 55,000 metres
€17bn – €17,000,000.000
€309 per metre don’t think we would bring it in
at that price.
@DeFonz: €309,000 per meter
@DeFonz: Ireland couldn’t organize a p up in a brewery . Whatever about ” bring in ” anything at that price .
Yeah bridges baby!
Wonder could they connect us to France?
Like a bridge over troubled waters ..
@BBborris….. mbeep mbeep
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