Pyongyang’s shiny new airport building has all the features international travellers have come to expect.



On arrival passengers see coffee and well-stocked souvenir shops, a DVD stand, information desk and a slickly produced billboard showing a crew of the nation’s flag-carrier, Air Koryo, looking sharp in their blue and red uniforms. There are even two chocolate fountains. One for white chocolate and the other one for dark.

But some of the amenities lose their luster upon closer examination. Case in point: the internet room appears to be missing the internet.

On two recent trips through the airport, the room’s three terminals were either occupied by airport employees, making it impossible for others to use them, or were completely empty – with their keyboards removed.

Maybe it was a temporary glitch. It’s hard to say, since airport officials have refused to comment.

Yesterday Air Koryo, North Korea’s official carrier, was named the worst airline on the planet for the fourth year running. Skytrax, who monitor international aviation standards, gave the airline one-star flagging up its “questionable” safety and rudimentary safety belts. The airport offers little improvement.

A modern travel destination?

At first glance, internet at the airport would seem like quite a concession for a country that is almost completely sealed off from the World wide web.

Air Koryo has scraped the bottom of international aviation rankings for four years in a row. Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images

Hardly any North Koreans have personal-use computers and most of those with online access can see only the country’s domestic version of the web — an intranet that has only websites that are sanctioned by the government for internal use only.

The internet itself can be seen only by a small number of elites, IT experts or others with a clear need to use it, and always under close supervision.

The internet room at the airport, which opened a few months ago, is part of efforts to give visitors the sense that North Korea is just like any other modern travel destination.

Another nod to international norms can be seen right behind the internet room, the smoking area.

In something almost never seen in the North, where just about every adult male who can afford it, including leader Kim Jong-un, is a smoker, the room has a big sign warning that the habit is hazardous to one’s health.