DPRK to offer flight tours over capital in Soviet-era helicopter

File photo taken April 13, 2015 shows May Day Stadium in Pyongyang. [Photo/SIPA]

SEOUL - Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) will offer helicopter sightseeing tours of its capital, Pyongyang, starting from this month, tourist agencies specializing in trips to the country told Reuters on Thursday.

DRPK does not publish tourist numbers but an estimated 6,000 Westerners visit the country each year, according to tour companies. The vast majority of tourists are from neighboring China.

"We'll swoop around the 105-story Ryugyong Hotel, do a low fly-by of the Taedong River past the Juche tower, and get a great glimpse of May Day stadium - the world's largest stadium," Rowan Beard of China-based Young Pioneer Tours, which offered the tours by state airline Air Koryo, told Reuters.

Tourists will be able to strap themselves into an ageing Mil Mi-17 - a Soviet-era military transport helicopter known for its small, porthole-like windows. Western travel firms are offering the flight as an optional extra, costing around 180 euros ($195), on trips to DPRK.

Air Koryo is also offering flights over the capital in an antique Antonov 24 - a 1950s Soviet propeller passenger plane.

The helicopter tour will also buzz over a vegetable farm and a monument honoring the Workers' Party, said Simon Cockerell of Beijing-based Koryo Tours.

Tourists will be allowed to take photographs during the flights which will last 30 to 40 minutes, he said.