NORTHWEST Airlines has made informal contacts with Pyongyang and hopes to be the first airline to fly over North Korean airspace.
Captain Robert Buley, assistant to the vice-president for operations, said a new non-stop route from Seoul to Detroit was planned and that the prime flight path was over North Korea.
He said Northwest also hoped its Narita-Seoul route could fly over the north of the Korean peninsula.
Captain Buley said Pyongyang recently announced it would open up its airspace to commercial flights but so far no airlines had been granted approval.
'We want to be able to fly over North Korea because it will save us about 320 miles on each flight. That adds up to a lot of savings in time and money - for us and the passengers,' he said.
'The United States still lacks official ties with North Korea, but we have made the first contacts. Fortunately, we are not as constrained as the US government representatives are when dealing with North Korea.
'But these things do take a lot of time to work out. It has to be done carefully and it has to be done very slowly. We have quite a way to go yet.' Captain Buley said it was also hoped the Seoul-Detroit run would use a new route over China that would cut about 300 miles from each flight.