Ссылка не получается. Даю полный текст. Это из The Washington Times.
Как видите, и самолёты летают.
Pyongyang opens to S.Korean tourists
By Jong-Heon Lee
UPI Correspondent
SEOUL, South Korea, Sept. 15 2003 (UPI) — North Korea has opened its capital to South Korean tourists for the first time since the division of the peninsula nearly six decades ago, a move that could lead to a sharp increase in inter-Korean exchanges.
The communist North also plans to open its ancient city of Kaesong to South Korean tourists as early as next month, say South Korean organizers.
Government officials say the brisk cross-border tour projects will help ease tensions on the peninsula raised in the wake of the yearlong nuclear standoff triggered by the North's atomic weapons program. A new chapter in inter-Korean civilian exchanges opened Monday when the first batch of South Korean tourists flew to Pyongyang on the first commercial flight between the two countries.
The 114-member group touched down at Pyongyang's Sunan Airport on a chartered flight with North Korean flag carrier Koryo Air, according to Pyeonghwa (Peace) Air Travel Agency, which organized the program. The trip marked the first time South Korean civilians visited Pyongyang purely for tourism. They will return by the South's Asiana Airlines, after a five-day sightseeing tour in Pyongyang.
The tour program comes after Seoul's Unification Ministry last month approved Pyeonghwa's request to operate the cross-border project. Government permission is needed by all South Koreans to travel to North Korea. The travel agency also got approval from the North's authorities for the package tours in July.
The travel agency is funded by the Unification Church of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, who is the founder of News World Communications Inc., which owns United Press International.
The church has played a role in promoting exchanges between the two Koreas by launching business ventures with the North. Its automotive arm, Pyeonghwa Motors, operates a $55 million car plant in a North Korean western port city of Nampo, in collaboration with Italy's Fiat SpA. The assembly plant will be capable of rolling out up to 20,000 cars annually.
"We believe the Pyongyang tours will expand cross-border joint tourism and contribute to inter-Korean reconciliation and cooperation in the long run," said Kim Byung-gue, Pyeonghwa Travel Agency's director of general affairs.
Pyeonghwa plans to take some 2,000 South Korean tourists to Pyongyang by the end of the year under the joint tour program, Kim said.
"We are enjoying sharply increasing demand," he said.
All flights will be chartered through Air Koryo, and South Korea's Korean Air and Asian Airlines. A five-day tour costs 2.2 million won ($1,910) while a six-day trip is priced at 2.9 million won ($2,517), it said.
While in North Korea, South Korean tourists will visit Pyongyang, Mount Myohyang, a tourist destination 75 miles northeast of the North Korean capital, and Pyeonghwa Motor's car assembly plant in Nampo.
They will be allowed to travel to the capital's Tower of the Juche (self-reliance) Ideology and the Arch of Triumph in central Pyongyang, close to the Workers' Party building in which the North's leader Kim Jong Il's office is located.
Pyongyang's opening to southern tourists and the start of a direct inter-Korean air route are widely viewed as a landmark step to broaden traffic of people across the heavily fortified border.
"We hope the South-North tour project will break a freeze in cross-border contacts and reduce tensions on the crisis-hit Korean peninsula," a senior Unification Ministry official said.
In hopes of further promoting the inter-Korean tour project, Seoul's Transportation Ministry said it planned to push for an aviation pact with the North to guarantee the safety of passengers and freight.
The Korean border has been sealed since the 1950-53 war ended without a peace treaty. There are no phone calls, mail, travel or other direct means of communication across the border. The divided peninsula remains in a state of technical war and the border is the world's last Cold War flashpoint with nearly 2 million troops stationed on both sides.
North Korea opened the sealed-off Kumgang Mount resort to South Korean tourists in late 1998. The South's Hyundai has operated cruise ship tours to the mountain on the North's east coast.
The project has, however, subsequently run into trouble because of a lack of tourists and Hyundai's financial woes. Hyundai is to pay North Korea $942 million in royalties to operate the tours through 2005. The inter-Korean overland route opened in February to boost the Kumgang tour project.
Hyundai Asan, a subsidiary of South Korean conglomerate Hyundai, said it would start the cross-border tours to North Korea's ancient city of Kaesong around October as the North's authorities agreed to open the border city.
Kaesong, once Korea's capital and commercial hub, is close to the Demilitarized Zone dividing the peninsula, making it easy to travel. Fort-three miles north of Seoul, Kaesong is under construction for a mammoth industrial park in which the South's labor-intensive plants will be relocated.
