With North Korea announcing yesterday that it could not guarantee the safety of South Korean civilian aircraft passing through North Korean airspace during the period of ROK-US “Key Resolve” military exercise (set to begin March 9), South Korean airlines are changing their routes for planes coming from the United States, Russia and elsewhere, reports the JoongAng Ilbo.
The changes will add about an hour to incoming flights.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Do South Korean civilian aircraft actually pass through North Korean airspace? The news stories I read earlier today reported that the North had threatened planes flying near their airspace.
No, they do not pass through NK airspace.
This is an idle threat since NK would have to go into Chinese territory. Over the Yellow Sea, though, might be a concern.
The JoongAng article actually does claim that Korean airliners go through NK airspace and pay a usage fee.
Interesting “WJC”. Every time I fly certain KAL flights, the onboard map shows us going through China a bit instead of NK. If true, I wonder which flights actually cut through their airspace.
The DPRK is a member of ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) but I don’t think they’ve been assessed by the FAA for compliance. Air Koryo is a member of IATA, but they were banned from operating in the EU because of some safety issues.
The DPRK authorities are required by the Convention on International Civil Aviation to inform the ICAO if they are going to be sending objects through the air that may endanger the safe operations of civilian aircraft. There have been some problems with this in the past over the East Sea of Russia. In 1998 “objects” passed through Airway A590, which is one of the main trunks for East Asia-North America traffic.
I’d like to clarify that I am not acting as a consultant for the DPRK, but someone may be reading this site.
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2009/02/19/you-stand-it-up-and-uncle-sam-knocks-it-down/#comment-212340
Last time I flew back from JFK on KAL, we went WAY out of our way to avoid NK airspace, looping far west of the peninsula and then into Incheon.
I’ve flown back and forth to Eastern Russia on Vladivostok Avia and Korean carriers.
Vladivostok Avia flies over North Korea; the Korean airlines do not.
Yep, I’m pretty sure the ICAO has OK’ed North Korean airpsace for civilian flights. They even lent them $3million to upgrade their ATC, which apparently they got back to the last penny. That presumably is enough for some, like the Russians. I’m guessing that the ROK Civil Aviation Authority also has to OK it as well for ROK operators to fly into DPRK airspace (and perhaps others like the Unification Ministry?), just like the FAA does with US carriers and flights originating in the US.
I’m guessing that someone has asked the Korean operators to reroute their flights further away from North Korean airspace, to avoid mishaps with developmental long-range ballistic missiles and other stuff the DPRK might “accidentally” let off. These detours cost them a lot of money.
for those who don’t read Korean, here is a TIMES online link which explains it all:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5855946.ece
From there I found another interesting link(not related):
http://timesonline.typepad.com/times_tokyo_weblog/2009/02/one-of-the-touc.html
very interesting. I know what the regular marmot holers would say, “This guy needs to come to Korea to seriously experience it” oh well.. ^^
Kim wants our attention and it is given.
What are the odds of a (what?) 2m diameter missile hitting an airliner? At what moment, in what space? Unless it’s aimed.
Why are we STILL paying attention to, and acknowledging those 4th world clownsmackers?
Wooky,
“[North Korea] is, therefore, compelled to declare that security cannot be guaranteed for south Korean civil airplanes flying through the territorial air of our side and its vicinity, its territorial air and its vicinity above the East Sea of Korea, in particular, while the military exercises are under way.”
Which part don’t you understand, why on earth are you linking this statement to the test satellite and/or test missile.
I also didn’t think they flew directly over North although pretty close over the yellow sea when going to europe, and what is territorial air space, may well extend quite far out into the east sea for flights to Vladivostock and Sapporo.
Remember well in the mid nineties when the flights from UK kept over russia passing over the top of north korea, before coming all the way down past Japan before turning up again to fly up the west coast of korea to Gimpo.
The article on this in the Korea Times actually has a map that shows NK’s territorial airspace extending well into the Sea of Japan. I would provide a link, but I’m lazy.
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