Three North Korean cargo planes appear to have been released from quarantine this week, nearly two months after traveling to China to pick up COVID-related supplies, according to NK Pro analysis of satellite imagery.

The move frees up North Korea’s only known cargo planes — Ilyushin-76 (Il-76) jet aircraft — for the first time since mid-May, when they were parked in abnormal positions in a remote spot on the rarely used northern runway of Pyongyang International Airport. 

The three Air Koryo planes remained there until sometime between July 3 and 5, returning to their typical parking spots across