https://www.nknews.org/2024/03/sanction ... rth-korea/
Sanctioned Russian plane linked to military makes unusual detour to North Korea
Expert raises concerns that Moscow may be using commercial freighter to conceal arms transfers from DPRK for Ukraine war
March 13, 2024
The Il-76TD freighter (tail number RA-76842) departed Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport at around 5:30 p.m. KST
on Monday
and flew north across the Yellow Sea
before making a sudden turn toward Pyongyang around 1.5 hours into the flight,
the aviation tracker Flightradar24 shows.
The plane reached the DPRK’s west coast at 7:10 p.m.
and then stopped broadcasting its location,
only to reappear in skies west of Pyongyang at 9:13 p.m. flying back west.
The plane landed at Binhai International Airport in Tianjin, some 100 km southeast of Beijing, later that night.
The Russian cargo plane left for Moscow the following day, flying over both China and Mongolia along the way.
https://www.reuters.com/world/sanctione ... 024-03-13/
Sanctioned Russian cargo plane visited Pyongyang, say media reports
March 13, 2024
10:33 AM GMT+1Updated 6 hours ago
SEOUL, March 13 - A Russian cargo plane sanctioned by the United States touched down in North Korea's capital Pyongyang this week,
the DongA Ilbo newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The Il-76 freighter, which departed from Moscow on March 6, 2024,
arrived at Pyongyang Sunan International Airport on Monday
before heading towards China around two hours later,
the South Korean daily reported, citing flight tracking web sites.
Such visits to the North Korean capital by a large private Russian cargo plane are rare, the newspaper said.
Russian cargo airline JSC Aviacon Zitotrans, which owns the Il-76, was targeted with sanctions by Washington last year as part of efforts to impede Russia's war in Ukraine.
Seoul-based NK News also reported
that the cargo plane left Shanghai's Pudong International Airport at around 5:30 p.m. (0830 GMT) on Monday
and flew north across the Yellow Sea
before making a sudden turn towards Pyongyang
around 1.5 hours into the flight, citing the aviation tracker Flightradar24.
Since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022,
Russia has deepened its ties with North Korea,
prompting the United States and its allies
to accuse Pyongyang of supplying Russia with munitions for its war effort.
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