During the period of Japanese rule, two airports were built in Pyongyang. Pyongyang Air Base was built by the Empire of Japan in the 1940s and remained in use until the 1950s. A second airport, Mirim Airport, was also built by the forces of the empire of Japan in the 1940s, east of the Taedong River. However, after World War II there was a need for a newer airport, and Sunan Airfield was built. Mirim Airport survived as a military airfield, and Pyongyang Air Base was re-developed for government use and for housing. During the Korean War, the airport was occupied by United Nations forces for seven weeks in late 1950, when the forces flew large amounts of supplies to Sunan. On 13 May 1953, the airport was inundated when the United States Air Force bombed Toksan Dam. After an armistice was signed, two months later, the North Korean Government began repairing and expanding the airport. The Soviet airline Aeroflot flew to Moscow and Khabarovsk in the 1980s. In the 1990s, Air Koryo also provided nonstop flights to Moscow, which continued on to Berlin, Prague and Sofia. During the 1989 13th World Festival of Youth and Students held in Pyongyang, a temporary terminal building was erected to accommodate the arrival of the festival's international attendees. Russian Sky Airlines operated charter services to Pyongyang from Russian destinations in the mid-2000s on Il-62M and Il-86 aircraft. China Southern Airlines offered scheduled charter flights to and from Beijing during the peak season only, and permanently stopped its flights in October 2006. Air China re-established service to Beijing on a Boeing 737, three days a week in March 2008, and suspended due to lack of demand in November 2017. Air Koryo, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines also provided chartered flight services to Seoul and Yangyang, on the east coast of South Korea, from Pyongyang. These flights were used by Koreans visiting relatives across the border; these services were halted after the ending of the Sunshine Policy by South Korea in 2008. Air China resumed service from Beijing Capital Airport to Pyongyang in June 2018. An interim facility handling international flights had been built just south of the existing terminal by early 2011. The existing terminal was deemed by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un too small and outdated, resulting in its demolition by early 2012. He ordered the construction of a new terminal in July 2012. Besides this, a new control tower and VIP terminal north of the main terminal were also built. The project became part of a "speed campaign", in which thousands of workers were enlisted to complete it quickly. The airport was closed to international travel in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and reopened in 2023 with the resumption of Air Koryo flights to Beijing and Vladivostok. However, on 25 July and 26, before it did, a Russian Special Air Squadron Il-96 and Air China government-chartered 737 arrived, carrying Russian and Chinese officials to personally meet Kim Jong Un and attend a ICBM fair. In July 2025, Nordwind Airlines began regularly scheduled service to Moscow-Sheremetyevo, operating only once a month initially before gradually increasing to twice a week.