North Korea's Air Koryo Wants to Be Your Facebook Friend

In a rare glimpse into customer service in North Korea, state-owned airline Air Koryo has a chirpy English-language Facebook page that appears to be aiming to encourage tourism to the secretive, totalitarian country. The Korea Times, a South Korean newspaper, reports: "The Facebook page for Air Koryo is downright user-friendly and even engages in witty repartee with visitors. This from the country that threatens to turn Seoul into a 'sea of flames' and dubs politicians here 'swollen-headed traitors.'" The Facebook page is heavy on photos of the airline's planes, but also answers questions about flights and schedules and posts friendly messages such as "The Air Koryo Facebook fan page wishes you all the best for the remainder of the day." Comments range from a question about booking business-class seats to a recommendation to bomb Air Koryo to ensure world peace. Air Koryo, based at the Sunan International Airport outside Pyongyang, flies to a few different countries, but the most popular flight is to Beijing. On a frequent flyers' online forum, one member speculated facetiously on whether Air Koryo's next step will be to join one of the global frequent-flyer alliances. That seems unlikely. The Korea Times noted that Air Koryo isn't over-hyping the airline's capabilities, citing its frank response to a question about online check-in. "You kidding right?" Air Koryo responded on its Facebook page. "There are many things to do before even looking at online check-in, such as actually creating a website."

North Korea's Air Koryo Wants to Be Your Facebook Friend

Featured Stories