A regular flight route from Shenyang, China to Pyongyang, capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), was opened on Monday by the China Southern Airline.

An MD-90 passenger plane, which belongs to the China Southern Airline's subsidiary Northern Airline, landed at Pyongyang's Sun An International Airport at 9:10 a.m. (0010 GMT), marking a successful maiden flight from Shenyang to Pyongyang.

"It is a forward-looking move for the China Southern Airline to open flights between Shenyang and Pyongyang after the restructuring of China's civil aviation," Tang Weijing, representative of the Southern Airline Pyongyang office, told Xinhua.

After the DPRK made adjustments in its economic policy in 2002,more Chinese visited the country for business, trade or tourism, especially those from Northeast China.

"The China Southern Airline operates two flights on the new route on Mondays and Fridays so as to promote the traditional China-DPRK friendship and boost economic cooperation between Northeast China and the DPRK," said Tang.

(Xinhua News Agency June 8, 2004)