WONSAN, North Korea: Just weeks after carrying out its fifth nuclear test, North Korea put on an unprecedented civilian and military air force display Saturday at the country’s first ever public aviation show.
The two-day Wonsan International Friendship Air Festival was held at the newly refurbished Kalma Airport — previously a military airfield — completed last year to boost tourism in the area around the eastern port city of Wonsan.
The festival was already scheduled before North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear test on September 9, triggering international outrage and threats of still further sanctions against the deeply isolated nuclear-armed country.
The show kicked off with an aerial display by a US Hughes MD-500 military helicopter — one of a number acquired in the 1980s by using a third country to circumvent US export restrictions.
