A Chinese plane appeared to pick up or deliver unidentified cargo in North Korea on Tuesday, an unusual trip possibly related to DPRK foreign minister Choe Son Hui’s high-level talks in Beijing in recent days.

According to NK Pro analysis of Planet Labs satellite imagery and Flightradar24 data, an Air China Cargo Boeing 747 (tail number B-2476) traveled from Shanghai Pudong International Airport and landed at Pyongyang International Airport around 12:30 p.m. KST on Tuesday.

A high-resolution Planet Labs image taken at 3:22 p.m. KST shows a plane matching the dimensions of a Boeing 747 near the northern terminal apron, while Air Koryo planes that are usually parked there were moved to the western apron to make room for cargo loading or unloading.

Five large cargo trucks as well as various other materials and vehicles appeared next to the plane, but the contents remain unknown. China has largely stopped enforcing U.N. sanctions in recent years, while recently appearing to tacitly endorse Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program.

The plane departed for Shanghai at around 4:15 p.m. KST,  less than four hours after arriving, according to Flightradar24 data.

China and North Korea have historically conducted the vast majority of their trade via road, rail and sea links rather than cargo planes, making Tuesday’s flight highly unusual and suggesting it may have been related to recent high-level diplomatic activities.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing last month, while the cargo transaction occurred on the same day that DPRK foreign minister Choe returned from talks in Beijing with her counterpart Wang Yi as well as Premier Li Qiang.

Choe appeared to travel from Beijing to Pyongyang on Tuesday aboard an Air Koryo Tu-204 (tail number P-632), arriving after 4 p.m. KST. She traveled to the Chinese capital on Saturday.

The two countries agreed to strengthen ties in various fields during the series of talks, but neither side released information about a special cargo delivery to North Korea.

The Air China plane in Pyongyang on Tuesday appears to be the first from the airline to land in North Korea since another Boeing 747 (tail number B-2472) took a Chinese government delegation to Pyongyang in April 2024.

Air China has not resumed commercial flights to ferry tourists to North Korea since halting the service in Jan. 2020 at the onset of the pandemic, though the airline still has staff in Pyongyang and Chinese Ambassador Wang Yajun visited their office earlier this year.

Previously, a Russian cargo plane linked to weapons deliveries appeared to travel from Shanghai to Pyongyang in March 2024.

Edited by Bryan Betts