A Russian air force passenger jet briefly touched down in the North Korean capital on Friday, according to aviation data, after two cargo plane-sized aircraft of unknown foreign origin appeared at the Pyongyang airport on Thursday.

The flights come amid ongoing secretive DPRK-Russia cooperation over the war against Ukraine, and after the two sides belatedly confirmed operation of flights to repatriate the bodies of dead North Korean soldiers. 

PASSENGER JET ARRIVES FRIDAY

The one confirmed Russian flight was an Antonov An-148-100E (RA-61733) operated by the Russian Aerospace Forces, which landed at the Pyongyang International Airport at around 9:45 a.m. KST Friday. It stayed on the ground only for less than two hours before heading back to Vladivostok at 11:05 a.m., according to aviation data by Flightradar24.

The plane departed from Moscow, making brief stops in Siberian cities like Novosibirsk and Chita before setting course to Vladivostok and eventually to Pyongyang.

The An-148 largely followed in the footsteps of its twin jet (RA-61735) that made a similar quick trip to North Korea after flying from Moscow to Vladivostok via Novosibirsk on July 27. Back then, the jet skipped Chita en route to Vladivostok but it did stop there on the way back when it flew to Moscow.

The two An-148 visits followed the arrival of another military-operated Russian Ilyushin Il-62M (RA-86559) on July 14 — just days after Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov landed on the DPRK east coast for talks with leader Kim Jong Un at Wonsan Kalma.

Both planes previously visited North Korea’s capital along with a third An-148 (RA-61729) in Dec. 2024. The RA-61733’s last known flight to Pyongyang was on Dec. 21, Flightradar24 records show.

The winter appearances likely happened around the same time that Kim received caskets at the airport presumably bearing DPRK soldiers killed in action in Kursk. Both sides hid this visit at the time, only disclosing photos of the low-key event with no additional details for the first time in June.

LARGER UNIDENTIFIED PLANES

NK Pro analysis of Planet Labs satellite imagery shows that there were two large foreign planes parked north of the main Pyongyang International Airport terminal around noon on Thursday. It is unclear when they arrived, and both were gone from a subsequent image taken around the same time Friday.

The visits appeared to be secretive in nature as aviation tracking sites such as ADSB Exchange and Flightradar24 showed no commercial or military flights into North Korea in the hours or days prior. 

Only one plane of a similar size was in the same spot in the previous most recent image taken on Aug. 2, though it may be one of North Korea’s Il-76 cargo planes.

NK Pro determined that the two large planes in the Aug. 7 image are not North Korean because they feature different dimensions than the only two aircraft in national carrier Air Koryo’s fleet of 18 that were missing at the time, an Il-62 and An-24. 

The two mysterious aircraft appear to each be around 45 meters long with 50-meter wingspans, though the measurements are imprecise as the imagery is not high resolution.

It is highly likely that they are Russian military aircraft, given ongoing military cooperation with North Korea.

These dimensions match those of Il-76 cargo planes, an aircraft model Russia has been accused of using for secret missions related to the two countries’ weapons trade and troop deployments to the war on Ukraine. 

North Korea owns three such aircraft. One (tail number P-913) was parked at a hangar on the northwest side of the runway on Thursday, having recently been remodeled into an early warning military aircraft. The two others (P-912 and P-914) appeared to be parked at the western apron across from the terminal, though they have previously been in the same spot as the two visiting aircraft north of the terminal.

Up to five Russian Il-76s previously appeared at the same time at the Pyongyang airport in June 2024 during Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s visit to North Korea. It has otherwise been uncommon for Russian cargo plane visits to be picked up by tracking services, though there were multiple instances in March 2024 likely related to weapons trade.

PURPOSE OF FLIGHTS

As of midday Friday, neither Russia nor North Korea have disclosed the purpose of the three planes in Pyongyang, but the activity aligns with a broader uptick in Russian flights to the DPRK since 2023.

Some likely reasons for the flights include transporting weapons, equipment, additional troop deployments or even the return of more dead North Korean soldiers.

It also remains possible that this week’s flights are part of high-level negotiations over the future of the war in Ukraine, especially as Russian leader Vladimir Putin plans to meet his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump “in the coming days” for talks which may impact North Korea’s participation in the war.

North Korea is set to celebrate the 80th anniversary of its liberation from Japanese colonial rule on Aug. 15, with the head of Russia’s State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin expected to visit the country to take part in festivities around the date. 

While unconfirmed, the appearance of the planes at Pyongyang’s airport, may be related to ongoing preparations for hosting Volodin and his delegation, as the official is reportedly expected to meet Kim for high-level talks.

Similarly, Russia’s former president and current deputy chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev will visit North Korea in October for the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party of Korea, with the intensification of aviation traffic and other bilateral contacts remaining in the cards.

Edited by Alannah Hill