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 from the airport terminal, Planet Labs satellite imagery shows. 

These images taken on July 2 and 5 shows the three Il-76 cargo planes moving from the northern runway back to their typical parking spots on the main runway. Other Air Koryo planes also appeared away from their parking spots and in front of the airport terminal on July 2, likely after flying out to pick up participants in a large meeting ongoing in Pyongyang this week. | Images: Planet Labs PBH, edited by NK Pro

Shipping containers that showed up near the planes on the northern runway on May 17 appeared to remain in place as of July 5 imagery, suggesting quarantine may be ongoing for goods which arrived on the planes from China.

North Korea’s quarantine policy has not been explicitly spelled out in state media and has appeared inconsistent over time. 

The roughly seven-week quarantine period for the planes is shorter than the around three-month quarantine for imports shipped by train at the DPRK-China border since January, but is longer than a one-week quarantine carried out for a ship that traveled to Nampho port from China in April.

North Korea has used the Il-76s, their largest commercial aircraft, to ferry Kim Jong Un’s luxury armored vehicles to summits with foreign leaders in Singapore and Hanoi in the past. Air Koryo has also shared the planes with the Korean People’s Army (KPA) for use in military exercises.

Since Kim Jong Un closed the country’s borders in Jan. 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the planes have occasionally appeared to move to a repair hangar at the Pyongyang airport but were not confirmed to have flown out of the capital until the mid-May flights to Shenyang.

Meanwhile, state media has continued to warn the public that COVID-19 can enter the country attached to objects blowing in across the borders. 

Edited by Arius Derr