Oil price ‘grounds’ N Korea fleet

North Korea has been forced to ground a fleet of Soviet-era military planes because of the high oil price, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

Fuel is being diverted for other training flights, Yonhap quoted a military source as saying.


The Antonov An-2 biplanes – of which North Korea’s air force is thought to have about 300 – are able to drop special forces behind enemy lines.

The planes, which can cruise below radar, carry some 12 soldiers.

North Korea’s impoverished economy has suffered from energy shortages for years, and rising oil prices have made the situation worse.

BBC