BEIJING, China: Six years after China suspended all air traffic to North Korea, China Air, the country's flag carrier, resumed direct flights between Beijing and Pyongyang on March 30.

This followed the restoration of passenger train services between the capitals.

According to Chinese state media, the Chinese ambassador to North Korea, Wang Yajun, and other diplomats welcomed the Air China flight.

Passenger train services between China and North Korea restarted on March 12.

Flights and trains had been stopped since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020. North Korea's airline, Air Koryo, started flights between the two capitals again in 2023.

During the pandemic, North Korea banned all foreign tourists, but it has slowly begun to relax these rules. In 2024, a group of Russian tourists was allowed to enter the country.

Before the ban, about 90 percent of visitors to North Korea were from China, so the delay in resuming Chinese tours surprised many.

China is North Korea's biggest trading partner and an important ally, though it has often criticised North Korea for testing missiles that could reach South Korea and the United States.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited Beijing in September to attend a large military parade, the first time in many years that a North Korean leader had attended such an event in China.